Kim’s influential sister: Pyongyang’s nuclear status is not negotiable

The influential sister of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, Kim Yo Jong, said that her country’s status as a nuclear-armed state is not negotiable, state media reported on Sunday.

Pyongyang’s “status as a nuclear weapons state is the line of no retreat and it is a stark reality whether anyone recognizes it or not,” state news agency KCNA cited Kim Yo Jong, a senior official in the ruling Worker’s Party’s central committee, as saying on Saturday.

North Korea’s status as a nuclear-weapon state is an “irreversible reality—regardless of whether others recognize it or not,” the 38-year-old stated via the state news agency KCNA.

The 38-year-old said that hostile forces should “give up the daydream about ‘denuclearization’,” reiterating North Korea’s position that its nuclear weapons programme is not negotiable and rejecting international efforts to denuclearize the country.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the US State Department told the South Korean news agency Yonhap that Washington remained open to dialogue with Pyongyang “without preconditions” and “remains committed to the complete denuclearization of North Korea.”

Kim Yo Jong’s remarks come ahead of a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Pyongyang set for Monday and Tuesday, marking the Chinese leader’s first trip to the country since 2019.

China and North Korea maintain close political ties. The two countries are linked by a mutual defence treaty, China’s only such agreement with another nation.

North Korea has been subject to UN sanctions over its nuclear weapons programme for roughly two decades. 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 been monitoring the implementation of the sanctions.

The programme is viewed by the United States, South Korea and Japan as a direct threat to regional and international security. Pyongyang says its nuclear arsenal is necessary to defend the country against external threats.

ANEWS wp:paragraph