Almost a half of all North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's activities reported this year by the country's official media were military-related, a Tokyo-based agency said Wednesday.

As of Wednesday noon, the number of Kim's activities reported by the media in 2017 was 102, compared with 141 last year, according to a tally kept by Radiopress, which monitors North Korean media around the clock.

Of the total, which is so far the lowest since Kim assumed power about six years ago, about 49 percent, or 50 of his activities, involved the military, the agency said. That percentage, up from last year's 36.9 percent, marks the highest level in three years, it said.

To the contrary, the number of activities linked to economic affairs, which represented the second largest portion, stood at 18.6 percent -- staying below 20 percent for the first time since 2014.

North Korea has adopted a policy of simultaneously pursuing nuclear and economic development. But the latest tally indicates that Kim was focusing more on strengthening its military power in 2017, during which the country test-fired ballistic missiles 15 times and detonated its most powerful nuclear device to date.

Hwang Pyong So, chief of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army, was more than anyone else with Kim for the fourth straight year in the leader's so-called field guidance visits, according to the Japanese agency.

His name was mentioned 39 times in the media reports. For a long time, Hwang, a member of the Presidium of the Workers' Party of Korea, has been regarded as one of the North Korean leader closest aides, but somehow he has not been seen in public since mid-October.

South Korea's spy agency said in November that Hwang was punished for "impure" acts.

After Hwang, Jo Yong Won, a vice department director of the ruling party's Central Committee, was the most frequent member of Kim's entourage to appear. His name was mentioned 35 times.

The names of two senior officials, Ri Pyong Chol and Kim Jong Sik, who are regarded as playing key roles in North Korea's missile development, moved up to the fourth and fifth spots, respectively.

On Tuesday, the United States imposed sanctions on those two officials.