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• North Korean leader meets Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russian Security Council

ISTANBUL

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un urged his armed forces to keep evolving into an "invincible" entity, Seoul-based Yonhap News reported Saturday, citing the North’s state media.

The remarks were delivered during a military parade celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).

In a speech Friday night, Kim reiterated his commitment to strengthen the nation’s defense capabilities, though he refrained from directly threatening South Korea or the US.

He emphasized that the country’s sovereignty can only be "defended and guaranteed by strength," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, according to Yonhap News.

"Our army should continue to grow into an invincible entity that destroys all threats approaching our range of self-defense by dint of its political, ideological, military and technical superiority overwhelming the enemy, and it should steadily strengthen itself into elite armed forces which win victory after victory on the strength of morality and discipline," he said.

North Korea has accelerated its missile and weapon development under a five-year defense plan. The North unveiled the new Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time at the parade.

Kim described the military as a "source of strength" for the WPK and praised the role of North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia in Moscow’s war with Ukraine.

"The heroic fighting spirit displayed, and the victory achieved, by our revolutionary armed forces on the foreign battlefields for international justice and genuine peace, demonstrated the ideological and spiritual perfection of our army," he said.

Kim promised to continue the fight against "injustice and hegemony," a comment that appeared to target the US.

Kim meets Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russian Security Council

Kim also met Friday with Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, expressing hopes for enhancing ties between Pyongyang and Moscow, Yonhap News reported Saturday, citing KCNA

Medvedev's visit "will serve as a significant opportunity in more vigorously expanding and developing the fresh high level of DPRK (North Korea)-Russia relations into the strong and comprehensive strategic partnership and alliance," Kim said.

He hoped the WPK and Russia's ruling party will "steadily boost cooperation and more closely conduct many-sided exchange and contact."

Medvedev said the "bravery and self-sacrificing spirit" of North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russia in the Ukraine war "proved the solidity of the fraternal ties between the two countries, the special relations of trust, and the invincibility of the alliance forged at the cost of blood."

Medvedev is one of several foreign guests invited to the North Korean celebrations marking the party’s anniversary, alongside Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Vietnam's leader To Lam.