(LEAD) N. Korean leader inspects factory producing launchers for solid-fuel ICBMs

▲ This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 5, 2024, shows the North's leader Kim Jong-un (C) and his daughter Ju-ae (R), inspecting a factory producing transporter erector launchers for strategic missiles. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

▲ This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 5, 2024, shows the North's leader Kim Jong-un inspecting a factory that produces major transporter erector launchers. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) NK leader-missile launchers

(LEAD) N. Korean leader inspects factory producing launchers for solid-fuel ICBMs

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details in paras 8, 10)

SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has visited a factory producing mobile launchers for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), stressing the need to strengthen the country's nuclear deterrence for a "military showdown" with its enemy, state media reported Friday.

During the visit, Kim ordered measures to expand the capacity to produce major transporter erector launchers (TELs), stressing that the factory plays an important role in bolstering the country's defense capabilities, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). It did not specify the date of his visit.

"Given the prevailing grave situation that requires the country to be more firmly prepared for a military showdown with the enemy, he indicated the tasks to be fulfilled by the factory," the KCNA said in an English-language dispatch.

Underscoring the need to produce various TELs for tactical and strategic weapons, Kim set forth immediate and long-term plans for their production and the task of expanding the factory's production capacity, it said.

Photos carried by the KCNA showed TELs for what appear to be solid-fuel Hwasong-18 and liquid-propellant Hwasong-17 ICBMs.

In April 2023, North Korea test-fired a Hwasong-18 ICBM for the first time and launched two more in July and December, respectively. The repressive regime launched a total of five ICBMs last year alone, marking the highest number in a single year.

At a year-end key party meeting, the North's leader called for stepped-up war readiness to deter "unprecedented" acts of U.S.-led confrontations and laid out plans to launch three more military spy satellites and bolster the nation's nuclear arsenal in 2024.

Meanwhile, the KCNA said Kim's daughter, known as Ju-ae, accompanied her father on the factory visit, calling her his "respected daughter."

South Korea's spy agency said Thursday that Ju-ae appears to be Kim's "most likely successor," marking the agency's first assessment of her possible succession in the reclusive regime.

Ju-ae, believed to be born in 2013, made her first public appearance on Nov. 18, 2022, when her father brought her to the launch site of a Hwasong-17 ICBM. Since then, she has made a total of 23 public appearances and 19 of them have been military events, according to Seoul's unification ministry.

Kim's entourage to the inspection also included Jo Chun-ryong, director of the ruling party's munitions industry department, and Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North's leader. Jo was promoted to party secretary during a year-end personnel reshuffle of the Workers' Party of Korea.

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