N Korea cites buildup for nuclear stance

‘ENEMY STATES’: North Korea’s vice defense minister said that Pyongyang would continue strengthening its nuclear deterrent, while others shunned denuclearization

A growing US-led military buildup and an expanding nuclear alliance among Washington, Seoul and Tokyo justified Pyongyang’s efforts to strengthen and expand its nuclear forces, North Korean Vice Minister of Defense Kim Kang-il said at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum yesterday.

North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state is irreversible, Kim told China’s flagship international security conference, adding that the nation would continue to expand its nuclear arsenal.

“The ceaseless nuclear arms buildup of the enemy states fully justifies the building of a solid nuclear shield of the DPRK,” Kim said, using the acronym for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

North Korean Vice Minister of Defense Kim Kang-il speaks at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum yesterday.

Photo: Reuters

“As the enemy states’ nuclear threat reaches the extreme level ... the DPRK will firmly defend the peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the region by ceaselessly expanding and strengthening its self-defensive nuclear deterrent,” he said.

Kim blamed tensions on the Korean Peninsula on what he called Washington’s “invariable” hostile policy toward North Korea and accused the US of turning trilateral cooperation with South Korea and Japan into a nuclear alliance.

North Korea’s constitutional status as a nuclear weapons state was “the line of no retreat,” he said, urging other countries to abandon what he called the “daydream” of denuclearization.

Kim’s attendance at the Xiangshan Forum marked a rare high-profile showing by North Korea at an international security gathering in recent years and came as Pyongyang seeks closer ties with Beijing amid tensions with Washington and its allies.

Asked about the possibility of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Kim Kang-il said that he was not in a position to discuss whether such a summit could take place.

His remarks followed a statement yesterday morning from Kim Yo-jong, the sister of Kim Jong-un, rejecting renewed international calls for North Korea’s denuclearization following discussions at the annual meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In a statement carried by state media, she said that North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state was “absolute” and could not be reversed, dismissing repeated denuclearization demands as annual “noise” and insisting Pyongyang’s nuclear position had been permanently established “physically and legally.”