N. Korea developing world’s most powerful nuclear force

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is considering to build “the world’s most powerful” nuclear force, according to state news agency KCNA.

The “ultimate goal” behind North Korea’s nuclear program was to possess an “absolute force, unprecedented in the century,” Kim said Saturday as part of an order promoting dozens of military officials, the officials said. The order comes after what North Korea said was a “test firing of a new kind” of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on November 18.

The missile was a Hwaseong-17, according to KCNA, a huge rocket that is believed to be capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the United States mainland. Kim commended the officials who developed the new missile in his remarks. He called the missile “the world’s strongest strategic weapon” and claimed it represented “a wonderful leap forward in the development of the technology of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles.”

With the development of the new ICBM, Kim said North Korea had demonstrated to the world “the confident, ever-victorious future of our state advancing toward the goal of building the world’s strongest army.”