North Korea declared Sunday that nuclear disarmament has been permanently abandoned, while criticizing recent nuclear deterrence discussions between the United States and South Korea.
“The U.S. 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, using the country’s official name.
“The ‘denuclearisation’ is an irreversibly finalised matter,” it said.
The declaration follows last week’s discussions between U.S. and South Korean officials in Seoul, where they worked to strengthen nuclear deterrence and preparedness against North Korea’s expanding weapons program through their Nuclear Consultative Group.
