North Korean leader Kim Jong-un paid an inspection visit to a front-line east coast military detachment, the country's official news wire said Friday.

"Kim inspected the Ryo Islet Defense Detachment standing guard over a forward post off the East Coast of Korea," the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, without disclosing the date of the visit, as it often does.

The detachment is part of the Large Combined Unit 287 near the country's eastern front line and is responsible for defending the island of Ryodo off the coastal city of Wonsan near the inter-Korean border.

It was the leader's second reported visit to the defense detachment since his first visit in April 2012.

"He said that the Ryo Islet Defense Detachment is an outpost-like gateway in the East Sea leading to the yard of the Central Committee for the Party and its soldiers are sentries defending the country in the van," the English-language KCNA report said.

"It is an important combat mission of the detachment to definitely turn the islet into an impregnable fortress and unsinkable battleship and thus not to allow enemies to invade the socialist homeland," the report also quoted the leader as saying.

The remarks appear to reflect the importance of the defending the Wonsan area, where the Kim family's luxurious retreat is located.

The young leader and his father, the late leader Kim Jong-il, have frequently visited the vacation home.

Kim praised the military detachment for successfully doing "everything the Party Central Committee considered as good," while also saying that it is "a model unit where the party's military policy is being most correctly implemented and a typical one for the whole army to learn from," according to the report.

During the visit, the leader also awarded higher military ranks to the detachment's commander and political commissar, recognizing their efforts, the KCNA said.

Among those who accompanied Kim on the visit are Hwang Pyong-so, the military's top political officer, and Choe Ryong-hae, a governing party secretary. (Yonhap)