North Korea says its nuclear weapons status is irreversible, KCNA reports

North Korea's foreign minister, Choe Son-hui, has stated that the country's nuclear weapons status is irreversible. According to The Korea Times, Choe made the comments in response to a meeting between the US, South Korea, and Japan, where they reaffirmed their commitment to denuclearization.

In a separate development, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that Ukraine has transferred two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea. The prisoners were captured in Russia's Kursk region in January last year and were the first North Korean soldiers to be apprehended alive since North Korea joined the Russia-Ukraine war in 2024.

Zelensky also criticized North Korea for sending troops to fight for Russia in an address to the UN General Assembly. The Jerusalem Post reported that one of the prisoners tried to kill himself when he realized he was going to be taken prisoner. South Korean media reported that the two captured soldiers had expressed their desire to defect to South Korea.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Korea Times, Winnipeg Free Press, Jerusalem Post, The Korea Times, Free Malaysia Today — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.