Kim says North Korea will keep developing 'formidable striking capabilities'

By Trend

North Korea will continue to develop "formidable striking capabilities" that cannot be bartered or sold for anything, leader Kim Jong Un said, according to state media on Monday, as he visited workers involved with the country's biggest missile test, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Kim was meeting with officials, scientists, technicians and workers who contributed to a missile launch on Thursday, which North Korea said was its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), state news agency KCNA reported.

"Only when one is equipped with the formidable striking capabilities, overwhelming military power that cannot be stopped by anyone, one can prevent a war, guarantee the security of the country and contain and put under control all threats and blackmails by the imperialists," Kim said, according to the report.

While personally overseeing the test on Thursday, Kim said the new ICBM was to help deter any military moves by the United States, which remains technically at war with the North after the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace agreement.