Kim Jong-il, top leader of North Korea, made a second inspection of the army in recent days as ties with South Korea deteriorate, the official news media reported on Sunday.

Kim inspected a recruit training subunit under Korean People's Army (KPA) Unit 776, urging the newly-enlisted soldiers to firmly train and become "ardent revolutionaries and reliable fighters," the KCNA news agency said.

Kim also inspected a company of KPA Unit 350, according to the Rodong Sinmun newspaper. He praised the company for having acquired high military technology and combat capacity to beat back the enemy's invasion at a single stroke, the newspaper said.

Relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have become tenser since South Korea's new president, Lee Myung-bak, pledged to review rapprochement projects pushed by his two predecessors.

On March 29, North Korea threatened to cut off talks with South Korea over comments by a South Korean military official about a possible pre-emptive strike against North Korea.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2008)