ISTANBUL

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said that the country’s air force will acquire “new strategic military assets” and a "new important duty,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on Sunday.

Kim delivered the remarks on Friday during a celebration at Kalma Airport honoring the 59th Kil Yong Jo Hero Flying Group of the Second Air Wing, held to commemorate the founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army Air Force.

Noting that the air force “will be given new strategic military assets and entrusted with a new important duty,” Kim said that “the expectations of the Party and the country for the Air Force, which will play a role in the exercise of the nuclear war deterrent, are very great.”

Kim did not specify which assets would be given to the air force.

“The confrontation in the sky, which must be settled only by victors and losers, life and death, is a confrontation of ideology and faith before being a confrontation of arms and equipment, and the victory in the battle is decided not by the ultra-modern fighters but by pilots armed with an indomitable spirit,” he added.

In May, Pyongyang conducted its first live-fire air-to-air exercise with military aircraft, and in March, it introduced an airborne early warning and control aircraft system.

Kim's daughter and successor, Ju-ae, also made a public appearance during the event, her first time since accompanying her father to China in early September for a military parade in Beijing.