North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to seek a "final goal" of "equilibrium of force" with the U.S. while also forcing Washington to "dare not talk about" military action over its nuclear and missile programs, state-run media said Saturday, a day after the isolated nation lobbed an intermediate-range missile over Japan for the second time.
"Our final goal is to establish the equilibrium of real force with the U.S. and make the U.S. rulers dare not talk about military option," Kim was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency during a visit to oversee Friday's missile launch.
Kim's tough talk came amid signals from Washington that patience with Pyongyang is wearing thin following the North's launch of what it confirmed was a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile over Hokkaido and into the Pacific Ocean. That missile — the second of its kind to overfly Japan in just over two weeks — traveled some 3,700 km, stoking concern in Tokyo and putting the U.S. territory of Guam, home to key American military bases, easily within the North's cross hairs.