Amir Latif Arain
17 September 2026•Update: 17 September 2026
North Korea has denounced a general assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that discussed the country’s denuclearization, saying its position as a nuclear weapons state is "absolute," state media reported Thursday.
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, referred to calls for denuclearization at the 70th regular session of the International Atomic Energy Agency's General Conference in the Austrian capital Vienna as "familiar silly talk,” the Korean Central News Agency reported.
"The DPRK's position as a nuclear weapons state is absolute, which cannot reverse with anything," she said, referring to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea -- the official name of North Korea.
The general assembly expressed concern over North Korea's expanding nuclear capacity, urging Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program in a "complete, verifiable and irreversible manner" in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The North Korean leader's sister dismissed the calls as "all noises, not surprising and not new."
"No matter how desperately the IAEA and the West may hold periodic meetings and talk about the denuclearization according to the fixed scenario, they can have no effect on the will and ability of the DPRK to take all necessary measures to defend the supreme interests of the state," she said.
"The reality in which the nuclear position of the DPRK has been permanently settled physically and legally cannot change even a bit.
"No one and nothing can ever reverse the crucial changes in the strength and position of the DPRK and prevent them in the future too," she added.
