Kim Jong-un has said North Korea intends to have the world’s most powerful nuclear force as the leader was again pictured with his daughter while inspecting troops and an intercontinental ballistic missile.
North Korea’s “ultimate goal is to possess the world’s most powerful strategic force, the absolute force unprecedented in the century”, Kim said in an order promoting dozens of military officers involved in the launch last weekend of a new ballistic missile, state media reported on Sunday.
He described the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as the “world’s strongest strategic weapon” and said it demonstrated North Korea’s resolve and ability to eventually build the world’s strongest army, which would reliably protect the dignity and sovereignty of the state and the people.
State media also showed Kim being accompanied on a military review by his daughter, whose existence had never been publicly confirmed before last weekend’s Hwasong-17 test. Ju Ae is estimated to be about 12 or 13 years of age, which means that in about four to five years she will be preparing to attend university or go into military service, Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the Stimson Centre in Washington, said last week.
State media news agency KCNA described her as Kim’s “most beloved” or “precious” child, a more honorific title than her previous description of Kim’s “beloved” child on its dispatch the previous week.
Her second appearance will raise the prospect that leadership of the totalitarian state could pass to a fourth generation of Kims.
Kim is believed to have as many as three children – two girls and a boy, experts said. Some observers believed one of those children was seen in footage of celebrations for a national holiday in September.
In Sunday’s report, Kim was also quoted as saying North Korean scientists had made a “wonderful leap forward in the development of the technology of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles” and were expected to expand and strengthen the country’s nuclear deterrent at an extraordinarily rapid pace.
Kim was pictured in photos posing with scientists, engineers and military officials involved in the test.
According to state media, those workers pledged to defend the “absolute authority” of the party and Kim, and vowed that “our missiles will fly vigorously only in the direction indicated” by Kim.
Capable of reaching the US mainland, the launch of the Hwasong-17 on 19 November prompted the US to call for a United Nations security council presidential statement to hold North Korea accountable for its missile tests, which are banned by security council resolutions.
North Korea’s powerful standing committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly awarded the Hwasong-17 missile the title of “DPRK hero and gold star medal and order of national flag 1st class”, state news agency KCNA reported in another statement, using the initials of the country’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“[The missile] clearly proved before the world that the DPRK is a full-fledged nuclear power capable of standing against the nuclear supremacy of the US imperialists and fully demonstrated its might as the most powerful ICBM state,” KCNA said.
With Reuters
