Kim Yo-jong has declared North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapon non-negotiable. Enemy forces should give up their “daydreams of denuclearization,” said leader Kim Jong-un’s sister.
Kim Yo-jong thus clearly rejected diplomatic efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament in North Korea. APA / AFP / Jorge Silva
Kim Yo-jongsister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-unhas declared her country’s status as a nuclear weapons power non-negotiable. North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state is an “irreversible reality – regardless of whether others recognize it or not,” said the 38-year-old via the state news agency KCNA with. Enemy forces should give up their “daydreams of denuclearization,” Kim said.
In doing so, Kim Yo-jong clearly rejected diplomatic efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament in North Korea. Just on Friday, a US State Department spokesman told the South Korean news agency Yonhap said the United States remained open to dialogue with North Korea “without preconditions” and “remained committed to the goal of complete denuclearization of North Korea.”
Kim’s statements come shortly before an announced state visit by China’s head of state Xi Jinping. The Chinese president will visit North Korea on Monday for the first time since 2019. China is North Korea’s only formal ally based on a mutual assistance treaty. The two countries fought side by side during the Korean War (1950-53).
North Korea has been subject to extensive scrutiny for around two decades because of its nuclear and missile programs U.N-Sanctions. Most recently, China and Russia blocked further punitive measures against North Korea in the UN Security Council. They also prevented the extension of the mandate of a UN panel of experts that had monitored the implementation of the sanctions. (APA/dpa)
