6 North Korean military services officials have been promoted to the rank of 4-star standard at the buy of leader Kim Jong-un on the event of the 110th birth anniversary of late countrywide founder Kim Il-sung, state media noted Thursday.

The announcement arrived on the eve of the anniversary, one of the country’s most significant celebrations, apparently aimed at rallying unity in just the army amid heightened regional tensions.

Kim has conferred the title of common to former Protection Minister Kim Jong-gwan, who was demoted to a three-star colonel general from vice marshal in a navy reshuffle past year, according to the point out-run Korean Central Broadcasting Station.

Other armed service officers promoted to typical are Kim Myong-sik, Kim Kwang-hyok, Jong Kyong-thaek, O Il-jong and Kang Solar-nam.

Kim expressed “firm belief that all the commanding officers, the hard core of the armed forces of the DPRK, would totally discharge their obligations in the honorable struggle to convert the revolutionary armed forces into the elite types less than the management of the Celebration Central Committee, remaining boundlessly faithful to the Celebration and the revolution,” the broadcaster documented.

At the moment, Kim retains the second-best place in the North’s military of “marshal.” Only his late grandfather and late father Kim Jong-il are titled “grand marshal,” the optimum rank. (Yonhap)