North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has visited a new power plant and a farm in the south of the country, official media reported Saturday.

The official Korean Central News Agency said Kim went to North Korea's South Hamgyeong Province where he congratulated workers who took part in the building of a new power station, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

On the same visit -- the date of which wasn't specified -- Kim was also shown urging farmers to use new technologies to help tackle the North's continuing food shortages, Yonhap reported.

KCNA said Kim was accompanied by his only brother-in-law Jang Song Thaek, a department director of the Communist Party, and party secretary Kim Ki Nam.