(MENAFN) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has urged his armed forces to transform into an "invincible" force, according to Seoul-based media, which cited the North’s official media on Saturday.

Delivering a speech at a military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), Kim stressed the importance of continuously enhancing the military’s capabilities.

During his address on Friday night, Kim reaffirmed his commitment to bolstering national defense, though he stopped short of explicitly threatening South Korea or the United States. A North Korean news agency, as reported by South Korean media, quoted Kim saying that the country’s sovereignty is “defended and guaranteed by strength.”

"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," Kim declared.

North Korea has ramped up its missile and weapons development under a five-year defense blueprint, unveiling the new Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile publicly for the first time during the parade.

Kim also highlighted the military’s role as a "source of strength" for the WPK and lauded North Korean troops participating alongside Russian forces in the ongoing conflict in 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.

The North Korean leader vowed to persist in opposing "injustice and hegemony," a likely reference to the United States.

In a significant diplomatic development, Kim met on Friday with Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, expressing optimism about deepening Pyongyang-Moscow relations, South Korean media reported, citing a North Korean news agency.

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 further expressed hopes that the WPK and Russia’s ruling party would “steadily boost cooperation and more closely conduct many-sided exchange and contact.”

Medvedev praised the North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, saying their "bravery and self-sacrificing spirit" underscores "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."

Among other foreign dignitaries attending the anniversary celebrations were Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Vietnam’s leader To Lam.

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