North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited strategic missile bases and checked their readiness “for strategic deterrence action”, while calling the US’s strategic nuclear potential a threat, Reuters and BTA reported, citing North Korean state media.
US strategic nuclear assets pose a “constantly growing threat” to North Korea‘s security environment and long-term threats require Pyongyang to “profoundly and strictly” counter-pose its nuclear forces, Kim was quoted as saying by the state-run KCTA news agency.
The North Korean leader also called for the modernization of the armed forces, with strategic missile forces being prioritized in the future, calling it “an important principle of the national defense building strategy.”
He was accompanied by Kim Yo-chen, his influential sister, and Kim Jong-sik, first deputy director of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea’s Central Committee Department, KCTA said, without specifying when the visits took place.