North Korean leader Kim Jong-un toured a special operation battalion, Pyongyang's state media said Friday, marking his first military-related inspection since September.

Kim visited the battalion unit under the Korean People's Army Unit 525, praising the troops for displaying their readiness for action during drills, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

The leader ordered military officials to feed soldiers well so they can complete their military exercises with more intensity, it said.

It marked his first field guidance to a military base in over a month. On the last visit, he watched a ground test of a new powerful rocket engine.

Among Kim's entourage was Army Col. Gen. Ri Yong-gil, the first vice chief of the KPA's general staff and director of the military's general operation bureau.

South Korea's spy agency said in February that Ri, a former chief of the KPA's general staff, was executed on corruption and other charges, and replaced by Ri Myong-su, a former minister of people's security.

But he was found on the list of alternate members of the party's political bureau at the country's rare party congress in May, silencing rumors of his purge.

The sudden disappearance of North Korean officials is usually viewed by outside analysts as being linked to a possible purge or punishment.

The KCNA said that KPA Vice Marshal Hwang Pyong-so, director of the military's general political bureau, and Ri Myong-su, head of the KPA's general staff, accompanied the leader on the latest inspection. (Yonhap)