SEOUL -- The top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea guided a firing drill by the country's super-large multiple rocket launcher battery on Monday, the first company-level salvo firing demonstration of the powerful weapon, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday.

The drill was designed to verify the might and the real war capabilities of the 600mm multiple rocket launchers through sudden maneuvers and salvo firing and check and enhance the readiness posture of the artillery force, the report said.

The firing practice was followed by a test to simulate an air explosion of a super-large rocket shell at a preset altitude above the target, KCNA said.

Calling the weapon system a deterrent to completely remove the possibility of armed conflict and war, Kim Jong-un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, stressed its important role in war preparations and instructed the country's artillery forces to expedite modernization process with the powerful weapon as the core, the report said.