TOKYO — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hinted Sunday that Pyongyang may ring in the new year with another bang — the test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
In his annual New Year’s address, Mr. Kim said that after testing what the North claims was its first hydrogen bomb last year, preparations for launching an intercontinental ballistic missile have “reached the final stage”
Mr. Kim did not explicitly say an ICBM test, which if successful would be a big step forward for the North, was imminent. But he has a birthday coming up next Sunday, and last year Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test Friday.
Mr. Kim threatened in the address to boost his country’s military capabilities further unless the U. S. ends war games with rival South Korea. But he also said efforts must be made to defuse the possibility of another Korean war and stressed the importance of building the economy under a five-year plan announced in May.
“The political and military position of socialism should be further cemented as an invincible fortress,” Mr. Kim said, according to an outline of the speech carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. “We should resolutely smash the enemies’ despicable and vicious moves to dampen the pure and ardent desire of the people for the party and estrange the people from it.”
The address was shown on television mixing video with Mr. Kim speaking and stretches of audio only, as still photos were broadcast. It was less than 30 minutes long.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said in a statement that it “strongly condemns” Mr. Kim’s threat to proceed with a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile and strengthen North Korea’s nuclear-strike capabilities. It said that the international community will not tolerate North Korean efforts to develop nuclear weapons, and that the North will only face tougher sanctions and pressure if it continues to go down that path.
Under Mr. Kim, who rose to power following his father’s death in 2011, North Korea has seen steady progress in its nuclear and missile programs, including two nuclear tests in 2016. It recently claimed a series of technical breakthroughs in its goal of developing a long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the continental United States.
U. N. resolutions call for an end to North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests. Mr. Kim appears uninterested in complying.
The year ahead could be a tumultuous one in north Asia, with Donald Trump set to become the new U. S. president Jan. 20.
Mr. Kim indicated there will be no change in the North’s nuclear policy unless Washington makes a big, conciliatory first move, which, even with the advent of Mr. Trump, would seem unlikely.
Mr. Trump has somewhat offhandedly suggested he would be willing to meet with Mr. Kim — but not in North Korea — and has at the same time indicated that he wants China to exert significantly more control over Pyongyang to get it to abandon its nuclear program.
At the same time, South Korea’s politics in disarray over a scandal that brought the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye. Ms. Park on Sunday accused her opponents of framing her with accusations that she conspired with a longtime friend to extort money and favors from companies. Her statement came a day after the arrest of former cabinet minister Moon Hyung-pyo on charges that he illegally pressured the national pension fund to approve a merger between two Samsung subsidiaries, a deal that helped ensure that control of South Korea’s most powerful conglomerate passed from its chairman to his son; a special prosecutor is seeking to determine whether Mr. Moon acted on Ms. Park’s behalf.
Demands from Pyongyang for the U. S. to stop its joint military exercises with the South and enter into negotiations to sign a peace treaty formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War have fallen on deaf ears in Washington for years amid an atmosphere of distrust and deepening hostility.
Mr. Kim is in his early 30s and is now in his fifth year as the North’s leader.
His New Year addresses, and a marathon speech at the May ruling party congress, are a contrast with his enigmatic father, Kim Jong Il, who rarely spoke in public. But he has yet to meet a foreign head of state or travel outside of North Korea since assuming power, and remains one the world’s most mysterious national leaders.

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North Korea’s young dictator issued several disconcerting warnings to the West in his New Year’s Day address Sunday.
Kim Jong-un vowed to strengthen North Korea’s nuclear capabilities and claimed the country is on track to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
“Unless the U. S. and its vassal forces stop nuclear threat and blackmail and unless they stop the war exercises which they stage right at our noses under the pretext of annual exercises, the DPRK would keep increasing the military capabilities for self-defense and preemptive striking capacity with nuclear force as a pivot,” Kim explained .
He declared the North “a nuclear and military power in the East” and promised to build North Korea into an “invincible fortress.”
North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests and numerous missile tests, in violation of international regulations and restrictions, over the past decade, but it has never flight-tested an ICBM.
“We have reached the final stage of preparations to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile,” Kim said . “Research and development of cutting edge arms equipment is actively progressing,” he added .
While the North has not yet tested an ICBM, experts believe the satellite launch in February 2016, just after North Korea’s fourth nuclear test, was a test of ICBM technology in disguise. South Korean defense officials said that the rocket, were it reconfigured as an ICBM, could strike targets over 7,000 miles away, putting the U. S. in range.
Pyongyang claimed in April 2016 that it successfully tested a long-range missile engine that would “guarantee” the ability to launch a nuclear strike on the U. S. Kim said the North “can tip new-type intercontinental ballistic rockets with more powerful nuclear warheads and keep any cesspools of evils in the Earth, including the U. S. mainland, within our striking range.”
The North announced in September last year that it had carried out another long-range rocket engine test capable of advancing its space and satellite program. The rocket engine test is also suspected to have been a cover for the testing of banned ICBM technology.
It is unclear how close the North is to actually testing an ICBM. North Korea conducted eight intermediate-range missile tests last year with only one reported success.
Suspected North Korean ICBMs KN-08 and KN-14 are untested.
North Korea has been under United Nations sanctions for its nuclear and ballistic missile tests since 2006. Harsher sanctions were implemented recently after the North’s fifth nuclear test in early September last year.
“We call on all states to use every available channel and means of influence to make clear to the DPRK and its enablers that launches using ballistic missile technology are unacceptable, and take steps to show there are consequences to the DPRK’s unlawful conduct,” U. S. Department of State spokeswoman Anna Richey-Allen told Yonhap News Agency.
She encouraged Pyongyang “to refrain from provocative actions and inflammatory rhetoric that threaten international peace and stability.”
South Korea also criticized the North for its continued pursuit of ICBMs and enhanced nuclear capabilities.
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