The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) made the announcement in a report published on Saturday under the title “No Force Can Prevail over Independence and Justice.”

“The DPRK, an undeniable new strategic state and nuclear power declares: Do not expect any change in its policy. Its entity as an invincible power can neither be undermined nor be stamped out,” the KCNA said, using an acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The report stressed that North Korea would “continue bolstering the capabilities for self-defense and preemptive attack with the nuclear force as the pivot as long as the US and its vassal forces persist in nuclear threat.”

The KCNA praised the country’s nuclear achievements in 2017 and said Pyongyang would “deal with the US’s most ferocious declaration of war with fire surely and definitely.”

"The US persistent moves against the DPRK in political, economic, military, diplomatic and all other fields till the end of this year could not stop even a moment the advance of the DPRK confident in the victory of its cause," the KCNA report noted.

North Korea has been under a raft of harsh UN sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear tests as well as multiple rocket and missile launches. Pyongyang has firmly defended its military program as a deterrent against the hostile policies of the US and its regional allies, including South Korea and Japan.

On November 29, North Korea said it had successfully tested a new missile that put the US mainland within range of its nuclear weapons. It also declared itself a “nuclear state.”