Pyongyang: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited the public and state security ministries and judicial bodies on their 80th founding anniversaries, emphasizing their roles in defending the North's socialist system, state media reported.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Kim paid congratulatory visits to the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security, the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office the previous day. During his visit to the state security ministry, Kim was greeted by Minister Ri Chang-dae and other senior officials. He extended "warm military greetings" to its personnel for their patriotism and loyalty in defending the party and the state.

Kim attributed the "feats and brilliant merits" of security officers as pivotal to the ruling party's legendary transformations and victories against hostile forces. He expressed confidence that service members will continue to fulfill their responsibilities and duties in the future. The state security ministry, an intelligence organ in North Korea, holds significant authority in surveilling and detecting dissidents through its tightly knit networks. The KCNA report described the ministry as a "political defender" of the ruling party.

This visit marks the first time Kim has visited the ministry since 2012, a year after he took office. Party secretary Jo Yong-won, party director Kim Hyong-sik, and Kang Yun-sok, vice chairman of the parliamentary standing committee, accompanied him on the visit. In 2009, he also visited the state security ministry while still heir to his father and later leader, Kim Jong-il, as noted by an inscription on a monument at the ministry.

During Kim's visit to the public security ministry, he emphasized its mission to "guarantee by law and arms the activities of the (ruling) party and the government who devote all their energies to defending the Korean-style socialist system and promoting the people's wellbeing." In separate visits to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office, Kim expressed expectations that officials would further strengthen the socialist legal system by thoroughly applying the ideas of the party.

The back-to-back congratulatory visits to security and judicial organs, responsible for social surveillance and law enforcement, seem to indicate the regime's intention to tighten its grip on social control.