Kim Yo-jong, deputy department director of the Workers' Party's General Affairs Department, stressed that North Korea's nuclear capability "will be constantly upgraded without a moment's pause."
According to the Korean Central News Agency on the 27th, Kim made the remarks in a statement criticizing the chairman's statement of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which had mentioned the "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." She denounced it as "a most pathetic chairman's statement that talks about some 'complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.'"
In the ARF chairman's statement released on the 25th, foreign ministers of the Indo-Pacific region called for North Korea's implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, denuclearization, and dialogue. The statement included the phrase "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" for the second consecutive year.
Kim said, "Still clinging to the 'denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula' is a failure of strategic thinking and logic, and the manifestation of a foolish and idiotic delusion." She made clear that "the current situation will never change according to the rhetoric or 'hopes' of any external force." She added, "Nuclear deterrence is the ultimate shield of national sovereignty and the highest guarantee for defending state power," and that "the position and significance of the existence of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as a responsible nuclear-weapons state that ensures the balance of power and guarantees geopolitical stability are final and irreversible."
