North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended an inauguration ceremony Monday for the Kangdong County Hospital, according to state media, calling it the first “modern” health facility outside Pyongyang.

Kim also reconfirmed plans to build 20 hospitals per year for the next decade, starting in 2026, until there is one in every city and county seat, part of a nationwide undertaking to upgrade a provincial health care system that he has disparaged as “backward.”

“Modernization of public health will guarantee the long-term development of the country, and it will assure our socialist state of a bright future,” he said