North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has inspected a major new missile factory, saying that his country’s five-year plan to boost production had been achieved — a key milestone that comes just ahead of his visit to Beijing for a military parade, where he is expected to meet the leaders of China and Russia.

Kim, visiting the factory Sunday, announced that his country had successfully completed a plan laid out in 2021 “to meet the long-term demands for the operation of the state missile forces,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a report released Monday.

During the visit, Kim “learned in detail about the newly designed automated assembly-line missile production system,” the report said, with the North Korean leader hailing the ongoing “serial production” of “various kinds of missiles” as “the most important core and strategic success achieved by the munitions industry” in developing the country’s defense capabilities.

The North Korean leader also stressed that the missile production sector “should be fully prepared to unconditionally accept and fully implement the new long-term production goals set forth by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea’s Ninth Congress, which is expected to come late this year or early in 2026.

The report also said that Kim had “ratified three new long-term plans related to missile production capacity and the draft for defense expenditure on the plans.” It did not offer more details of these plans.

Images accompanying the KCNA report appeared to show Kim among missiles from the Hwasong-11 short-range series that have been battle-tested by Russia in its war in Ukraine. Pyongyang claims the weapons, which have a range that can strike most of South Korea, are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

KCNA did not say where the new factory was, but South Korean media reported that it was likely in the country’s north, with Kim continuing a tour of key facilities on his way to China for the large-scale military parade in Beijing set for Wednesday.

Kim’s visit to China — his first to the country in six years — will see him take part in a large multilateral gathering for the first time since ascending to the North Korean leadership in late 2011.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who signed a key defense pact with Kim last year, will also be visiting Beijing for the parade, with the celebrations widely seen as a chance for the two strongmen to join Chinese leader Xi Jinping in stressing their three-way alignment in the face of growing U.S.-South Korea-Japan trilateral cooperation.

The highly symbolic event is expected to further burnish Kim’s credentials as a statesman, with the North Korean leader also likely to hold bilateral meetings with Putin and Xi.

Kim has ramped up ties with Putin and secured a much-needed lifeline in the form of fuel, food and access to advanced military equipment in exchange for sending North Korean troops and weapons for Russia's war against Ukraine.

The move has helped the North Korean regime dilute the effects of crushing U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Kim’s visit could also provide at least some insight into his views on a possible return to talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, who said last week during a summit with his South Korean counterpart that he would be open to such a move.