Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, declared on Sunday that her country’s nuclear weapons program represents “the line of no retreat,” a pointed signal issued on the eve of Chinese President Xi Jinping‘s arrival in Pyongyang.
“The DPRK’s status as a nuclear weapons state is the line of no retreat,” Kim said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). “We will never tolerate any threat or compromise related to our sovereignty and security.”
Her remarks came as Xi prepared for a two-day visit beginning Monday, his first trip to North Korea in seven years. The visit follows back-to-back summits Xi held last month with US President Donald Trump in Washington and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Rejection of Denuclearisation Claims
Kim Yo Jong directed pointed criticism at a White House fact sheet issued after the Trump-Xi summit, which stated that both leaders had confirmed a shared goal to denuclearise North Korea. She dismissed that framing as false.
“Still, some officials in the United States have failed to wake from their escapist and anachronistic dreams,” she said. “This is nothing but an old practice of the US for spreading false information.”
Analyst Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification told AFP the statement underscored Pyongyang’s acute sensitivity to any suggestion of US-China alignment on the issue. “Kim’s core message was a categorical rejection of reports of US-China discussions on North Korean denuclearisation,” he said, adding that Pyongyang may have sought assurances from Beijing during the summit’s preparatory coordination.
Weapons build-up continues
Kim Yo Jong also cited US arms sales to South Korea as justification for further strengthening North Korea’s arsenal. Separately, Kim Jong Un inspected a major munitions factory over the weekend and called for it to increase missile production capacity, state media reported.
North Korea enshrined its nuclear status in its constitution in 2023. Since Kim Jong Un’s 2019 summit with Trump collapsed over denuclearisation terms, Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an irreversible nuclear state, a position reinforced by its deepening military ties with Russia.
