Kim Yo-jong, director of the General Affairs Department of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, reiterated that the country's status as a nuclear weapons state is "irreversible and absolute."
In a statement on the 17th aimed at the 70th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Kim called efforts to change her country's current status "a pathetic delusion and a futile waste of effort." Countries attending the IAEA conference, which opened in Vienna on the 14th, have been calling for North Korea's denuclearization.
"No matter how loudly the IAEA and the West sing about denuclearization, it will have no effect whatsoever," Kim said, arguing that the North's nuclear forces are "making a significant contribution to peace and security."
The statement was unusual in that it was issued under Kim's name rather than by a Foreign Ministry or atomic energy agency spokesperson, and because it came while the IAEA conference was still under way and before any resolution had been adopted. It is seen as an attempt to underscore once again that recognition of North Korea's nuclear weapons state status is a precondition for talks with the United States.
Yang Moo-jin, chair professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said the statement reflects "an intent to firmly establish its nuclear weapons state status while preemptively blocking denuclearization resolutions." He added that Pyongyang "modulated the intensity by not naming the United States directly."
