Kim Yo-jong says North Korea’s nuclear status is irreversible, rejects IAEA denuclearization call

North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state "cannot be reversed by anything," Kim Yo-jong, director of the General Affairs Department of the Workers' Party and sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said Thursday as she rejected the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s denuclearization call.

Kim dismissed remarks raised during the 70th session of the IAEA General Conference about North Korea’s violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions and calls for its denuclearization as "familiar silly talk," according to a statement released through the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) the same day.

“They are all noises, not surprising and not new, that we can hear always at this time of every year, like the sounds from the autoresponder day and night,” Kim said, according to KCNA. “The human beings who are talking about the change of the present position of our state should clearly understand how miserable it is and how useless it is.”

Kim also said international calls for denuclearization would not affect North Korea’s nuclear policy.

“No matter how desperately the IAEA and the West may hold periodic meetings and talk about the denuclearization according to the fixed scenario, they can have no effect on the will and ability of the DPRK to take all necessary measures to defend the supreme interests of the state,” Kim said, referring to North Korea by the acronym of its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Kim also reiterated North Korea’s claim that its status as a nuclear weapons state has already become irreversible.

“The DPRK's position as a nuclear weapons state is absolute, which cannot be reversed by anything,” Kim said. “No matter how rhetorically the hostile forces may deny, the reality in which the nuclear position of the DPRK has been permanently settled physically and legally cannot change even a bit.”

While the statement was released through KCNA, it was not published in the official printed daily newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, the Rodong Sinmun, which is accessible to the North Korean public.

Concerns over North Korea’s nuclear program were raised by South Korea and European countries at the IAEA General Conference, which opened Monday.

The countries said North Korea’s nuclear program poses a serious threat to the international nonproliferation regime and called on Pyongyang to fulfill its international obligations, including those under UN Security Council resolutions, and pursue complete denuclearization.

The IAEA also released its annual report analyzing North Korea’s nuclear activities ahead of the General Conference. The report said North Korea has been expanding its uranium enrichment capacity and showed indications of reactor operations.

BY HAN YOUNG-HYE [[email protected]]