North Korea says it will not abandon nuclear weapons

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui has firmly rejected international calls to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Operative Information Center-OMM reports that the statement was carried by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The minister said Pyongyang would “preserve its nuclear arsenal forever throughout all eras.”

Choe Son Hui criticized a trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of the United States, South Korea and Japan held in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Responding to the joint statement adopted by the allied countries on the “complete and verifiable denuclearization” of North Korea, the Pyongyang official stressed that her country would not give up this status:

“As the foreign minister of North Korea, I firmly reaffirm, in the strongest possible terms, our state’s unwavering resolve to preserve its irreversible and permanently unchanging nuclear weapons under any circumstances throughout all eras.”

The minister added that while a strategy of pursuing dialogue alongside military pressure might be applied to other countries, such an approach was completely ineffective in relations with North Korea.

Alongside the statement, Pyongyang continues to demonstrate its military capabilities. North Korea said it successfully tested new ammunition on Sept. 22 designed for an upgraded 240-mm multiple rocket launcher system.

According to KCNA, the rockets are equipped with an “autonomous precision guidance system” and can accurately destroy simulated targets at a range of 100 kilometers on a standard trajectory and 115 kilometers in combined glide mode.

North Korea’s nuclear program has remained a central issue in security tensions on the Korean Peninsula. International efforts to achieve denuclearization have focused on negotiations, sanctions and security guarantees, while Pyongyang has repeatedly described its nuclear capability as essential to its national defense.