A day before the high-profile visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korea said it will not back down from developing nuclear weapons.
“Our status as a nuclear power is absolutely non-negotiable,” Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said in comments published by Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of record on Sunday.
He is considered a leading communications and foreign policy figure in North Korea.
He said, “The policy of continuously strengthening self-defensive nuclear war deterrence declared by the head of state is an irreversible and final conclusion that must be executed unconditionally.”
Kim orders ‘exponential’ nuclear build-up
North Korea announced its first nuclear test in 2006 and enshrined its status as a nuclear power in its constitution in 2023.
Earlier this week, North Korea unveiled a new facility to enrich weapons-grade uranium. Kim visited the site where he called for “rapid” expansion of the country’s nuclear arsenal.
Analysts said the new nuclear site is aimed at strengthening North Korea’s negotiating position ahead of the meeting between Kim and Xi.
Kim also visited a major munitions factory and ordered more than doubling the country’s missile production capacity over the next five years, according to state media.
Edited by: Rana Taha