SEOUL, July 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited national cemeteries honoring fallen soldiers, including Chinese troops, to mark the 73rd anniversary of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, Pyongyang's state media reported Monday.

Kim visited the Fatherland Liberation War Martyrs Cemetery on Sunday, where the war dead are buried, and met with veterans, wishing them "good health and long life," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

The armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, and North Korea has marked the date as Victory Day since 1996, claiming it won the war against U.S.-led forces.

Kim repeated familiar state narratives about the war, calling it a fight to defend "the dignity and sovereignty of the state but also the global peace and security in a heavy and hot war against the U.S. imperialists" and their allies.

"The miracle of July 27 won by the ordinary army and people on this land with ardent love and indomitable might should be the precious ideological and moral wealth and infinite latent energy of the Korean revolution to be invariably and thoroughly carried forward regardless of the replacement of generations and the growing gains of the revolution in the long journey of building a power."

Photos carried by the KCNA showed Kim's wife, Ri Sol-ju, and daughter, Kim Ju-ae, with him. Ju-ae appeared in public for the first time since June 4, when she accompanied her father on the navigation test of the naval destroyer Kang Kon.

Kim also visited the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery on Mount Taesong, where anti-Japanese guerrilla fighters and independence activists are buried, laying flowers at the graves of early guerrilla leaders including Kim Chaek, Kang Kon and Choe Hyon.

Kim praised their loyalty and sacrifices as the foundation of what he called "the most heroic generation" of North Korean history and a model for "the indomitable Korean people."

His focus on the war and its legacy appeared aimed at reinforcing loyalty to the leadership among the younger generation with no direct memory of the conflict.

In addition, Kim paid a visit to the Cemetery of the Fallen Soldiers of the Chinese People's Volunteers in Hoechang County of South Phyongan Province, where 134 Chinese soldiers are buried, including Mao Anying, the eldest son of Mao Zedong, the late founding leader of the People's Republic of China.

The KCNA praised the Chinese soldiers' sacrifice as the foundation for North Korea-China friendship, with "socialism as its core."

Kim was joined by senior party officials, including Jo Yong-won, Kim Song-nam and Ju Chang-il, secretaries of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea's central committee, along with Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and Defense Minister No Kwang-chol.

This year's coverage of Kim's visit to the Chinese soldiers' cemetery was notably more detailed than last year's report, which only briefly noted a visit to the Sino-Korean Friendship Tower without mentioning bilateral ties.

jaeyeon.woo@yna.co.kr

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