North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over a military artillery firing contest on 15 April, the "Day of the Sun" — the birth anniversary of state founder Kim Il-sung and one of the country's most significant national holidays. State media reported that units from the Korean People's Army's western area competed in a live-fire exercise, with the Capital City Defence Corps taking top honours, as Kim called artillery capability "the most important factor deciding victory in war" and urged accelerated modernisation under a new five-year defence plan. Notably, Kim skipped paying respects at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun (the Pyongyang mausoleum where Kim Il-sung's embalmed body lies in state) for the fourth consecutive year, a pattern analysts see as a deliberate effort to consolidate loyalty around himself rather than his predecessors.