North Korea rejects call to halt nuclear tests

North Korea rejected calls to stop nuclear tests, calling the international statement a “grave political provocation”.

25 Sep 2026 04:21AM

North Korea's foreign ministry on Thursday (Sep 24) rejected an international statement urging it to halt nuclear tests, with a spokesperson calling it "a grave political provocation against our state" by "hostile forces".

A meeting of ministers from the Friends of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty - a grouping of Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands - said any new nuclear test by North Korea would be irresponsible and unacceptable.

The meeting in New York on Tuesday urged Pyongyang to fully comply with all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.

The spokesperson for North Korea's foreign ministry described the country as a responsible nuclear-armed state, in a statement carried by state media KCNA.

In another statement carried by KCNA earlier in the day, North Korea's foreign minister Choe Son Hui said Pyongyang's nuclear weapons status is irreversible.

Choe was responding to a separate meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this week between the United States, South Korea and Japan at which they reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearisation of North Korea.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, agreed in 1996, bans "any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion" anywhere in the world, with the goal of reducing and ultimately eliminating nuclear weapons.