Kim Yo-jong Calls Nuclear Status "Absolute" in Response to IAEA Warnings

Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and General Affairs Director of the Workers' Party of Korea, claimed in response to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference's call for North Korea's denuclearization that "the status of a nuclear weapons state cannot be reversed by anything."

In a statement released today (September 17), Kim dismissed the recent 70th IAEA General Conference's criticisms that North Korea is violating UN Security Council resolutions and its calls for "complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization" (CVID) as "familiar nonsense," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

Regarding the IAEA's criticisms of North Korea's nuclear program, Kim insisted, "It is merely noise that is neither surprising nor new, heard constantly around this time every year like a sound ringing day and night from an answering machine," adding, "Those humans sitting together and chattering to try and change our state's current status must clearly realize what a pathetic delusion and futile waste of effort it is."

She continued, "No matter how much the International Atomic Energy Agency and the West periodically hold conferences and loudly sing of denuclearization according to a fixed script, it cannot have any influence on our will and execution ability to take all necessary measures to defend the state's supreme interests."

She further emphasized, "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's status as a nuclear weapons state is absolute and cannot be reversed by anything," adding, "No matter how much hostile forces rhetorically deny it, the reality that the DPRK's nuclear status has been permanently fixed both physically and legally cannot be altered in the slightest."

At the IAEA General Conference that opened on September 14, South Korea and European nations pointed out that North Korea's nuclear program poses a grave threat to the international nonproliferation regime, urging North Korea to fulfill its international obligations, including UN Security Council resolutions, and to move toward complete denuclearization.

Ahead of the General Conference, the IAEA also released an annual report detailing North Korea's expanding uranium enrichment capabilities and signs of nuclear reactor operations.
 
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.