North Korea faces no choice but to seek complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID) as it is a legal obligation imposed by the United Nations Security Council, Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday.
"(CVID) is an international legal obligation imposed on North Korea by eleven unanimous resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, leaving no room for choice," the ministry said in a statement.
The statement was issued in response to one released by Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, on Monday. She criticized Washington's policies of strengthening its extended deterrence and military alliance with South Korea, arguing that such actions would only make it difficult for Pyongyang to engage in dialogue.
The ministry said it was impossible to ignore the North's "deceptive behavior" of continuously enhancing its nuclear and missile capabilities while having agreed to denuclearize multiple times over the past 30 years and receiving various corresponding measures.
It urged Pyongyang to immediately cease its unjustifiable nuclear and missile developments, and return to the path of dialogue for denuclearization.
Source: Yonhap News Agency