North Korea tells UN: We will never give up nuclear programme

North Korea will never give up its nuclear programme, the country's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong told the United Nations General Assembly on Monday (29 September).

It was the first time North Korea had dispatched an official from Pyongyang to address the annual gathering of world leaders for the General Assembly since the country's foreign minister traveled to New York in 2018. 

"Imposition of 'denuclearisation' on the DPRK is tantamount to demanding it to surrender sovereignty and right to existence and violate the Constitution," said Kim, referring to the country's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"We will never give up sovereignty, abandon the right to existence and violate the Constitution."

"Thanks to our state's enhanced physical war deterrent in direct proportion to the growing threat of aggression of the U.S. and its allies, the will of the enemy states to provoke a war is thoroughly contained and the balance of power on the Korean peninsula is ensured," he said. 

U.S. President Donald Trump said last month that he wanted to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year.

Since Trump's January inauguration, Kim has ignored Trump's repeated calls to revive the direct diplomacy he pursued during his 2017-2021 term in office, which produced no deal to halt North Korea's nuclear programme.

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