North Korea Calls G7 a “Political Group That Has Lost Its Reason to Exist,” Pushes Back Against Denuclearization Demand

[Financial News] North Korea on the 12th denounced the Group of Seven (G7) as a small political group that had lost its reason to exist. It reacted after G7 foreign ministers gathered in Paris, France, called for North Korea’s complete denuclearization in a joint statement. The G7 foreign ministers condemned North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and reaffirmed the goal of North Korea’s “complete denuclearization” under relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.
North Korea responded with a statement by its Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, who enjoys the absolute trust of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In a statement released through the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that day, Choe denounced the G7, saying, “The G7, where countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom—which create serious nuclear threats to regional and global security through the illegal proliferation of military nuclear technology—and a defeated nation like Japan—which seeks to pursue nuclear armament to realize its neo-militarist ambitions—run rampant, has no right to discuss or pass judgment on anyone’s nuclear issue.”
She said, “The G7’s insistence on someone else’s ‘denuclearization,’ which has already completely lost its meaning and justification, is an act of escapism and double standards,” and disparaged it as “an isolated minority political group that has lost its reason to exist.”
North Korea also reiterated the legitimacy of its status as a nuclear-weapon state. Choe emphasized that the G7 had criticized North Korea’s constitutional rights, saying, “The Korean Peninsula issue, especially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) status as a nuclear-weapon state, can absolutely never be a subject of discussion by the West.”
Choe said North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons was a “lawful and legitimate exercise of sovereignty” consistent with the right to self-defense enshrined in the UN Charter, and asserted, “Our assessment and position that possessing nuclear weapons is the best guarantee of safeguarding national sovereignty are absolutely unchanging.”
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