Kim Yo-jong rejected the Group of Seven’s renewed call for North Korea’s denuclearization on June 18, saying the country’s nuclear weapons are a means of self-defense and part of its core interests. In a statement carried by KCNA, she said denuclearization is a line of no retreat that can never be crossed.
The response came one day after the Group of Seven leaders issued a joint statement at their summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, reaffirming support for the complete denuclearization of North Korea. The G7 said its position was in line with UN Security Council resolutions, keeping the issue on the agenda as North Korea and the United States remain locked in the same dispute over who should move first.
Kim Yo-jong did not leave much room for reading the statement as a bargaining position. She described denuclearization as an irreversibly finalized agenda that can never be realized, criticized the United States and its allies for making anachronistic demands, and said nuclear weapons are powerful means of defending sovereignty and a cornerstone for ensuring peace, defined by the law of the DPRK.
That language matters because it is not framed as a temporary rebuttal or a warning meant to soften a future offer. It is a declaration that North Korea sees its nuclear arsenal as settled policy, not a topic for negotiation. She went further, saying North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is a means for self-defense and warning that anyone who tries to hurt the core interests of a nuclear weapons state would make the worst option of inviting disaster.
The G7 statement and Kim Yo-jong’s answer leave the same gap they have left before: one side is still pressing denuclearization, and the other is saying the door is shut. Until that changes, the next move is more likely to be another round of statements than any shift in North Korea’s position.
