North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has inspected strategic missile bases and vowed to push ahead with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile development programs.
North Korea’s ruling party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, reported Kim’s visits in its Wednesday edition. The paper did not say when or where the visits took place.
Photographs show Kim examining what appear to be ICBM-class Hwasong-18 missiles and what are thought to be hypersonic missiles, capable of traveling at more than five times the speed of sound.
Kim said the threat posed by America’s strategic nuclear weapons is ever-increasing.
He said strategic missile forces are central to North Korea’s war deterrence, and that the North will continue to prioritize modernizing them.
The remarks appear to be a show of defiance against the United States ahead of its presidential election next month.