North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and his son, heir-apparent Kim Jong-un, have inspected a newly-built factory producing DVDs in Pyongyang, the North's state-run news agency said Saturday.

While touring the Mokran Video Company, the leader praised the workers and technicians of the company and related officials for "successfully building a DVD factory in a brief span of time," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Kim Jong-il called it a "model factory that can represent the age of knowledge-based economy," the English-language report said.

The report, however, did not mention when the factory was built or the date of visit.

The leader underlined "the need to have DVDs recorded not only with literary and art works but with reminiscences of President Kim Il-sung and other books and distribute them," the report said, referring to the late North Korean founder and former leader.

Other Pyongyang officials accompanying the Kims were Kim Ki-nam and Pak To-chun, secretaries of the Workers' Party Central Committee, Jang Song-thaek, vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, Ju Kyu-chang, a department director of the party, and Ri Jae-il, first vice department director of the party.

The youngest son was recently anointed successor to the family dynasty that Kim Jong-il took over after his father died in 1994.


(Yonhap)