Sister of North Korean leader rejects assertions of U.S-China pursuit of denuclearization

Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a department director of the ruling party, said the country would never give up its status as a nuclear weapons state and rejected a U.S. assertion that Washington and Beijing had agreed to pursue its denuclearization at the U.S.-China summit in May.

"The DPRK's status as a nuclear weapons state is the line of no retreat and it is a stark reality whether anyone recognizes it or not," Kim said in a statement issued Saturday and carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), referring to North Korea by the abbreviation of its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The statement came as Chinese President Xi Jinping prepares to travel to Pyongyang on Monday for his first visit to North Korea since 2019. Its timing appeared aimed at signaling that the North's nuclear program would not be open for discussion when Xi meets Kim Jong-un.

Kim Yo-jong's statement came after the U.S. State Department repeated a statement from the White House from the May summit. A spokesperson said Friday that "in Beijing, President Trump and President Xi confirmed their shared goal to denuclearize North Korea."

She dismissed that as "an old practice of the United States for spreading false information."

"It is just a complete fabrication and false information," she said.

She also claimed that the North held "the most accurate information about the fact," hinting that Pyongyang had been briefed directly by Beijing.

Kim Yo-jong also pointed to what she described as Washington's decision to approSve the export of Joint Direct Attack Munition precision-guided bombs and related equipment to South Korea. She framed the North's military expansion as a response to such moves.

The North "will never remain a passive onlooker to the situation in which the equilibrium of forces is destroyed," she said.

The push to strengthen its nuclear deterrent, set out by Kim Jong-un, was "an irreversible final conclusion to be carried out unconditionally," she added.

"The nuclear capability is the most powerful logic in the dispute with those who worship power," she said. "We will never tolerate any threat or compromise related to our sovereignty and security."

The statement followed North Korea's unveiling earlier in the week of a new plant for producing weapons-grade nuclear material, where Kim Jong-un called for an "exponential" expansion of the country's arsenal, according to KCNA. Analysts have said the disclosure appeared timed to strengthen Pyongyang's position before the talks with Xi.

BY JEONG JAE-HONG [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]