North Korea has vowed that it will never give up its nuclear weapons.

The deputy minister for foreign affairs, Kim Son Gyong, stated this while addressing the UN General Assembly on the last day of the high-level week on Monday,

“We will never give up nuclear, which is our state law, national policy, and sovereign power as well as the right to existence,” Mr Kim said.

Mr Kim gave a muscular defence of North Korea’s stance on nuclear weapons, noting the alliance between the U.S., Japan, and South Korea.

He said the alliance could “rapidly evolve into a more offensive and aggressive military bloc.”

He said it was only because of his country’s powerful military deterrent that “the will of the enemy states to provoke a war is thoroughly contained”.

Mr Kim said nuclear weapons were now enshrined in North Korea’s constitution as a “sacred and absolute thing that can never be touched upon and tampered with.”

Imposing denuclearisation on the state “is tantamount to demanding it to surrender sovereignty”, he added.

Mr Kim announced that as part of the effort to develop a self-reliant national economy and to meet output targets, the completion of a five-year economic plan is “definitely within reach.”

He said 50,000 new houses are being built in Pyongyang while a new rural development policy was yielding “tangible results”.

The deputy minister called on Israel to end its genocide and “crimes against humanity” in Gaza and withdraw from the enclave.

“The DPRK will promote multifaceted exchanges and cooperation with the countries that respect and take friendly approaches towards it,” he said.

(NAN)