Seoul, Jan 5 (IANS): North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 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", state media reported on 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 North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

It did not however, 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," Yonhap News Agency quoted the KCNA as saying.

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 reclusive regime launched a total of five ICBMs last year alone, marking the highest number in a single year.

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

South Korea's spy agency said on Thursday that Ju-ae is 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 November 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 20 of them have been military events, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.