N. Korea says its status as nuclear weapons state ‘final, irreversible’

Politics

North Korea’s foreign minister said Friday that the United States and the West have no right to argue about its status as a global nuclear weapons power, slamming a recent joint statement by the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) as an interference.

In a statement, Choe Son-hui took issue with a joint statement recently released by the G7 Foreign Ministers condemning the North’s unlawful ballistic missile launches and saying that Pyongyang “cannot and will never” have the status of a nuclear-weapon state under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

“The G7 has no authority or qualification for the exercise of sovereignty and national status of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” she said, referring to the North by its official name. “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s status as a global nuclear power is final and irreversible.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency