No dialogue with N. Korea possible if denuclearization comes first: unification minister

North Korea's vice defense minister, Kim Kang Il, claimed at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum that escalating US-led military actions and a widening nuclear alliance involving Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo justified North Korea's own nuclear expansion. He emphasized that North Korea's status as a nuclear weapons state was unchangeable and vowed to continue expanding its arsenal.

Kim Kang Il stated that the continuous nuclear arms buildup of Western states fully justified the construction of a robust nuclear shield for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The enemy's nuclear threat had reached extreme levels, and Pyongyang would firmly defend peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and region through ceaseless expansion and strengthening of its self-defensive nuclear deterrent.

Kim blamed ongoing tensions on Washington's consistent hostile policy towards North Korea and accused the US of transforming trilateral cooperation with South Korea and Japan into a nuclear alliance. He insisted that North Korea's constitutional status as a nuclear weapons state was a "no retreat" line and urged other nations to abandon the notion of denuclearization.

Kim Kang Il's appearance at the Xiangshan Forum, a rare high-profile showing for North Korea at an international security gathering, occurred as Pyongyang seeks closer ties with Beijing amid tensions with Washington and its allies. Kim Yo Jong, leader Kim Jong Un's sister, rejected renewed international calls for North Korea's denuclearization in a statement, reiterating that North Korea's nuclear status as a weapons state was absolute and irreversible, dismissing demands as annual noise.

She also accused the US and South Korea of escalating military confrontation through joint weapons-of-mass-destruction response planning and exercises.