North Korea rejects IAEA calls for denuclearization — Korea Herald
In North Korea, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un and director of a department of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, rejected international calls for denuclearization. She called the DPRK’s nuclear status “absolute” in a statement disseminated by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Reaction to the IAEA conference
The statement came during the 70th regular session of the IAEA General Conference, which is taking place in Vienna. As Korea Herald reports, the conference expressed concern over North Korea’s expanding nuclear capabilities and called on Pyongyang to completely, verifiably and irreversibly abandon its nuclear weapons program in accordance with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
Kim Yo Jong called such appeals “noise,” which, she said, is neither new nor unexpected. She stated that IAEA meetings and meetings of Western countries, as well as discussions of denuclearization, would not affect the DPRK’s intentions and ability to take measures that the country’s authorities consider necessary to protect state interests.
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Assessment of the nuclear program
Before the start of the IAEA session, the agency released the director general’s report on safeguards in North Korea. It referred to a significant increase in Pyongyang’s uranium enrichment capacity and the expansion of key nuclear facilities.
Kim Yo Jong also claimed that the DPRK’s nuclear status had allegedly become entrenched “physically and legally” and could not be changed.
