North Korea has declared that denuclearisation is an 'irreversibly finalised' matter, rejecting recent joint calls by the United States and its allies to disarm, according to a report by Yonhap News Agency on Sunday.
An unnamed spokesperson for North Korea's foreign ministry criticised the recent South Korea-US and US-Japan discussions that reaffirmed the goal of eliminating Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme. The statement was carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
'It is an unreasonable talk and fantastic daydream to mention about disarming the other belligerent party's nuclear weapons,' the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson further asserted that North Korea's status as a nuclear-armed state cannot be altered by external pressure. 'The US 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,' the spokesperson said. 'The denuclearisation is an irreversibly finalised matter.'
DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The statement also criticised the recent US-Japan 'Extended Deterrence Dialogue', during which Washington and Tokyo reaffirmed their commitment to the 'complete denuclearisation' of North Korea. 'No matter how hard the U.S., Japan and the ROK may quibble, they will never change the present position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state,' the spokesperson said, using the acronym for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.
Earlier on June 8, North Korea and China vowed to further strengthen their ties as they marked 65 years of their treaty of friendship, aiming to expand cooperation in economy, infrastructure, and deepen military and diplomatic relations, as reported by China Daily.
Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed the commitment to strengthening ties with North Korea during his two-day visit to Pyongyang, his first trip to the country in seven years. During talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Xi expressed readiness to work closely with Pyongyang to strengthen top-level strategic coordination and deepen bilateral relations in what he described as a 'new era' of ties between the two nations. Xi said China remains committed to preserving the traditional friendship between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the DPRK, regardless of changes in the international landscape.
