10 years at helm, Kim Jong Un's nukes are still 'magic wand'

Since taking power 10 years ago, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has cherished his country's nuclear and missile programs, making them the core of his absolute rule

SEOUL, South Korea -- As Kim Jong Un marks 10 years in power this week, the world still doesn't quite know what to make of the North Korean leader.

Is he the playful scamp who once gave an underling a piggyback ride after a rocket engine test? Or the Western-educated leader tearfully commiserating with his people's economic misery? How about the global statesman, shaking hands with South Korean and American leaders? Or maybe the brutal pragmatist who had his uncle and virtual No. 2 — along with dozens of others — executed?

Since taking over supreme leadership a decade ago, Kim has presented many faces to an insatiably curious world, but while the image shifts perhaps the most telling way to consider Kim is through his persistent pursuit of a nuclear weapons program meant to target America and its allies.

An arsenal of as many as 60 nukes, by some estimates, with the means to add as many as 18 more a year, has allowed Kim to solidify domestic unity and achieve some measure of the global prestige he's long coveted. It has also flummoxed Washington and its allies by building what Pyongyang claims is a credible deterrence against U.S. hostility.