A major goal of United States foreign policy in 2017 has been to prevent North Korea completing the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

But despite President Donald Trump’s pledge in January that a North Korean “nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S….won’t happen,” Kim Jong Un on Tuesday declared that the DPRK has now “finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force, the cause of building a rocket power.”

Having tested its Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15 ICBM designs a total of just three times, its uncertain whether the missiles can be reliably fielded