North Korea’s nuclear program ‘non-negotiable’

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Sunday on the eve of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Pyongyang that the country’s nuclear program is “absolutely non-negotiable,” according to Yonhap News Agency.

“Our status as a nuclear power is absolutely non-negotiable. We will not tolerate any threat,” Kim Yo Jong, who officially holds the position of director of the Public Affairs Department of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea but is considered a major player in the country’s communications and foreign policy, said in an opinion article dated Saturday and published in the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper in its Sunday issue.
Kim Yo Jong’s article came in response to a statement issued by the White House on May 17 confirming that US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping “reaffirmed their common goal of denuclearizing North Korea” during Trump’s state visit to Beijing.

“Some officials in the United States have not yet woken up from their unrealistic and outdated dreams,” Kim Yo Jong said.

She added, “Any attempt by the United States to deny or challenge the nuclear status of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has no legal value, and no one will be bound by Washington’s unilateral rhetorical statements.”

She continued, “The policy of continuously strengthening the country’s defensive nuclear deterrence, as defined by the nation’s leader, is an irreversible path that must be implemented without the slightest negligence.”

Kim Yo Jong’s statements were published on the eve of Xi’s visit to North Korea, which state media says will last from Monday to Tuesday.

Beijing is a vital source of political and economic support for North Korea, one of the most diplomatically isolated countries in the world and subject to harsh international sanctions.

According to the National Commission on North Korea, a Washington-based think tank, North Korea was dependent on China for about 95% of its total trade and 85% of its exports in 2022.