Kim Jong Un vows North Korea will build an 'invincible' military

Kim Jong Un
(Image credit: MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP via Getty Images)

During a weapons system exhibition, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to build an "invincible" military.

Kim said the United States has "frequently signaled it's not hostile to our state" but that "there is no action-based evidence to make us believe that they are not hostile," calling the U.S. a source of instability and accusing it of "continuing to create tensions in the region with its wrong judgments and actions," The Associated Press reports. The North Korean leader also said the country's top objective is to possess an "invincible military capability," per AP.

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Professor and nuclear weapons expert Jeffrey Lewis told CNN that Kim's exhibition focused on the "vast array of new missiles developed over the past five years," serving as "both a display of past achievements, as well as a warning of what's to come."

Yang Wook, a military expert at Hannam University in South Korea, also told AP, "Basically, North Korea wants to send this message: 'We'll continue to develop new weapons and arm ourselves with nuclear force, so don't slap sanctions with these as we can't agree on the double standards.'"

Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.