SpaceWar.com reports: “North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected strategic missile bases and called for bolstering nuclear deterrence against the ‘ever-increasing threat’ posed by the United States, state-run media reported Wednesday.

Kim was accompanied on the visits by his sister, Kim Yo Jong, and high-ranking political official Kim Jong Sik, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. KCNA did not specify when the tours took place.

Images released by state media showed Kim standing next to massive Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles, solid-fuel weapons with the range to reach the entire continental United States.

Kim ‘examined the readiness for action of strategic deterrence directly connected with the security of the country, including the important functions and capabilities of launch-related facilities in the missile bases and the strategic missile combat duty,’ KCNA reported.

‘As was stressed on several occasions recently, the U.S. strategic nuclear means pose ever-increasing threat to the security environment of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,’ Kim said, using the official name of North Korea.

‘The long-term threats urgently demand that the DPRK more definitely bolster its war deterrence and take a thorough and strict counteraction posture of the nuclear forces,’ he added…”