State media reports that Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s leader, supervised air force exercises and stressed the importance of increasing war readiness.

The Korean Central News Agency stated that Kim observed anti-aircraft combat and air strike exercises conducted by North Korea’s 1st Air Division on Thursday.

According to the outlet, the North Korean leader urged all military units to achieve “a breakthrough in war preparation.”

Hong Min, a North Korea analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, noted that footage of the drills broadcast on state TV showed a MiG-29 jet launching a missile that appeared to be a copy of a Russian-developed mid- to long-range air-to-air missile.

Earlier in the month, Kim Jong Un oversaw a missile test, toured tank and munitions factories, and made a rare visit to the Russian embassy in Pyongyang to reaffirm the country’s alliance with Moscow. He also supervised tank firing exercises and special operations training.

North Korea also criticized the U.S. for including it on a list of countries that do not fully cooperate with U.S. counterterrorism efforts – a designation it has received annually since 1997, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson stated, “The more the U.S. provokes the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] with unnecessary and inefficient malicious acts, the further it will escalate the irreconcilable hostility between the DPRK and the U.S.”

The spokesperson continued, “The DPRK will … take effective and proper measures to cope with the U.S. hostile provocations in all spheres.”

Reuters contributed to this report.