North Korea official blasts ASEAN for urging denuclearisation
Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a central figure in Pyongyang’s foreign policy, has launched a fierce verbal attack against the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) following calls for the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
In an official statement published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), she condemned the position adopted at last week’s annual ASEAN Regional Forum in Manila as “stupid and foolish”, dismissing regional hopes for nuclear disarmament as an outdated delusion.
The dispute was triggered by the release of the ASEAN Regional Forum chair’s statement, in which foreign ministers from across the Indo-Pacific region expressed grave concern over North Korea’s continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
The joint declaration urged compliance with relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and called for international dialogue to achieve lasting peace and stability through a peaceful, denuclearised peninsula.
Kim Yo Jong expressed strong dissatisfaction with the bloc, accusing ASEAN of displaying an undisguised hostile attitude and acting as a hired mouthpiece for the United States.
She argued that adhering to the concept of denuclearisation represents a complete failure of strategic logic, stating that the objective has lost all meaning both conceptually and practically.
She further accused the regional body of ignoring North Korea’s national constitution, which was updated in 2023 to formally enshrine its status as a nuclear-armed state.
Pyongyang has maintained for years that its nuclear arsenal serves as an essential deterrence mechanism to protect national sovereignty, despite facing heavy international sanctions and prohibitions from the UN Security Council.
Reaffirming the regime’s stance that its nuclear capabilities represent a “line of no retreat”, Kim Yo Jong emphasised that North Korea’s nuclear status is final and completely irreversible, adding that its arsenal will continue to be updated steadily without pause regardless of external pressure or diplomatic rhetoric.
