'100,000-fold' growth in North's nuclear capabilities, denuclearization not an option: Unification minister

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Thursday North Korea's nuclear capabilities have grown 100,000 times over the past 30 years, insisting that pursuing North Korea's complete denuclearization is no longer sustainable.

Chung made the remarks at a forum, as Pyongyang has continued to advance its nuclear capabilities and claimed its nuclear status is "irreversible," while ruling out denuclearization talks.

"It is evidently the harsh truth that the approach of pushing for the complete denuclearization (of North Korea) pursued in the past is no longer sustainable," Chung said in his opening speech at the annual Global Korea Forum.

He said North Korea's nuclear capabilities have expanded "100,000 times" over more than three decades since 1992, adding Pyongyang was strengthening its nuclear programs even at this "very moment."

To highlight North Korea's nuclear capabilities, Chung cited the 90 grams of plutonium that Pyongyang had reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1992 and the 57 nuclear weapons, a figure that U.S. President Donald Trump specified last week as the North's nuclear arsenal for the first time.

On Trump's renewed olive branch to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Chung said a "great transformation" was setting in, noting that a "window of opportunity" is opening.

He also stressed the government's efforts to play an active role as the "pace maker" to help realize the U.S.-North Korea dialogue.

Chung said Seoul should put in all-out efforts to achieve a four-way dialogue between South and North Korea, the U.S. and China to eventually resolve the "unstable armistice system" into a peaceful one.

Yonhap