North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said he wants his country’s nuclear arsenal to continue growing, while assuring Pyongyang is a “responsible” nuclear power, North Korean state media reported today.

Because of “more diversified threats” from the United States and its allies, North Korea’s “nuclear forces” and its capabilities to develop them must be “perfected,” the North Korean president said.

OR Pyongyang It will “redouble” efforts to ensure its armed forces, including nuclear forces, are “completely ready for combat,” he said during the 76th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

However, the country is a “responsible nuclear power,” Kim Jong Un assured, “Our nuclear weapons, which are used to defend ourselves, are not a threat to anyone.”

This speech was made at a time when relations between the two Korean states are at their lowest point. North Korea recently announced the deployment 250 ballistic missile launchers on the border with South Korea.

According to Yang Wook of the Asan Institute for Policy Study, “by 2027, North Korea may have 200 nuclear warheads and up to 300 by 2030.”