Kim Jong-un's sister criticizes ARF's call for North Korea's denuclearization

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Monday denounced regional calls for denuclearization, reaffirming that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal would be “updated steadily.”

In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim Yo-jong criticized a joint statement released on Saturday, after the Asean Regional Forum’s (ARF) annual foreign ministers’ meeting in Manila, which reaffirmed their commitment to the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea.

The ARF statement called for international efforts toward “the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner.”

“Resolute and clear is the DPRK’s stand that nuclear deterrence is the ultimate shield for national sovereignty and the supreme guarantee for defending sovereignty,” Kim Yo-jong said in the statement. DPRK is short for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“Whatever others may say, the position and significance of the existence of the DPRK as a responsible nuclear weapons state to keep the balance of strength and ensure the geopolitical security in and over the Korean Peninsula are final and irreversible,” she said.

“The DPRK’s nuclear capability will be updated steadily without a momentary stagnation,” she added.

The ARF is the only regional multilateral security forum that includes both South and North Korea. However, Pyongyang skipped this year’s meeting, marking its absence for the second consecutive year, amid what many believe is its ongoing focus on strengthening ties with Russia and China.

Kim Yo-jong made similar remarks in June, when she called North Korea’s status as a nuclear-armed state “absolutely irreversible” and a “line of no retreat” while vowing not to tolerate any threats against it.

Yonhap