SEOUL: North Korea has declared that denuclearisation is a matter terminated irreversibly, as it condemned recent nuclear deterrence talks between the United States and South Korea.
“The US and its vassal forces’ meaningless rhetoric against the DPRK and cooperation in posing a nuclear threat to it can never affect the irreversible position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state,” a spokesperson for North Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state media KCNA.
“The ‘denuclearisation’ is an irreversibly finalised matter,” the statement said.
The remarks came after US and South Korean officials met in Seoul last week to discuss strengthening nuclear deterrence and readiness against North Korea’s growing weapons programme under their Nuclear Consultative Group.
North Korea has long rejected dialogue on giving up its nuclear arsenal, which it defends as a necessary deterrent against US-led threats. The country has conducted multiple weapons tests in recent years, including intercontinental ballistic missiles and tactical nuclear delivery systems.
The latest statement reaffirms Pyongyang’s official position as a nuclear weapons state, a status it formally codified into law in 2022. International non-proliferation efforts and UN Security Council resolutions continue to call for the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
US and South Korean officials have not yet responded to North Korea’s statement.
