North Korea on Sunday reaffirmed its status as a nuclear state is “irreversible,” rejecting demands by the US and its allies for denuclearization.
Pyongyang’s statement came in direct response to a flurry of allied diplomatic and military moves in the Korean Peninsula, including nuclear deterrence talks in Seoul, a $300 million US missile sale to South Korea and a European rebuke of its ties to Russia.
No Denuclearization
In a statement carried by state media KCNA, a spokesperson for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry condemned the US-ROK Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) meeting in Seoul, as well as the US-Japan Extended Deterrence Dialogue in Tokyo, in which they called for the denuclearization of Pyongyang.
“It is an unreasonable talk and fantastic daydream to mention about disarming the nuclear weapons of the country,” the statement said.
“The US and its vassal forces’ meaningless rhetoric against the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and their cooperation in posing a nuclear threat to it can never affect the irreversible position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state,” the statement added, stressing that “the “denuclearization” is an irreversibly finalized matter.”
“No matter how hard the US, Japan and the ROK may argue, they will never change the present position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state,” the Foreign Ministry asserted.
Defying US and international calls for giving up its nuclear arsenal, North Korea has declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state, accelerating the expansion of its nuclear capabilities.
Nuclear Deterrence Meetings
Seoul hosted the sixth meeting of the US-ROK Nuclear Consultative Group meeting on June 11, during which they discussed bolstering extended nuclear deterrence in the face of North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile capabilities and the changing security environment.
Both Washington and Seoul “confirmed their shared goal to denuclearize North Korea,” according to a joint statement.
“Both sides assessed the efforts of the US and ROK military authorities to develop US-ROK conventional-nuclear integration (CNI) to deter and respond to the DPRK’s nuclear threats and agreed to continue its development,” the statement noted.
Days earlier, the US-Japan Extended Deterrence Dialogue (EDD) took place in Tokyo.
“Both delegations discussed China’s dramatic and opaque nuclear weapons buildup and rejected Russia’s notion that the DPRK’s pursuit of nuclear weapons was a closed issue. They reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of the DPRK,” they said in a joint statement.
Missile Sale
North Korea also condemned the US approval of selling advanced air-to-air missiles and related equipment to its southern neighbor and Japan.
“The US is busy with war moves simulating the use of nuclear weapons while massively delivering various types of military hardware including latest air-to-air missiles to the ROK and Japan,” the Foreign Ministry’s statement said.
The US State Department approved a $300 million foreign military sale of advanced air-to-air missiles and related equipment to South Korea.
Pyongyang labeled the sale as “war exports,” warning that the military cooperation between Washington and Seoul was being “systematically strengthened” and would worsen tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea-Russia Ties
The North Korean Foreign Ministry also issued a sharp rebuke against a joint statement by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and European Union (EU) leaders in Brussels, which criticized North Korea’s growing military cooperation with Russia as “illegal.”
The Seoul-EU statement, issued on Wednesday, condemned Pyongyang’s support for Moscow “which enable Russia to sustain its war of aggression against Ukraine.”
In response, North Korea slammed “the sinister attempt of Western countries to force a sovereign state to violate its constitution in the international arena,” warning against the “consequences of the repetition of such provocations.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been strengthening military ties with Russia, sending troops and artillery to support Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.
