From left: Australian Foreign Minister Sen. Penny Wong, India's Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pose before a Quad ministerial meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India, on Tuesday. (Yonhap-Reuters) North Korea on Thursday condemned the Quad grouping as a tool for US-led “unipolar domination,” rejecting calls for its denuclearization and insisting it would “never” abandon its nuclear weapons program.The remarks came after the foreign ministers of the Quad — comprising the United States, Japan, Australia and India — reiterated their commitment to the “complete denuclearization of North Korea” during talks held Tuesday in New Delhi.Pyongyang responded sharply, accusing the Quad of pursuing bloc confrontation under the banner of regional stability.A spokesperson for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency that the Quad’s joint statement “seriously distorted the immediate and urgent challenges and threats faced by the countries in the Asia-Pacific region.”The spokesperson also criticized the grouping for expressing concern over tensions in the South China Sea and East China Sea, claiming the move was intended to justify Japan’s military buildup and Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines.“QUAD is nothing but a political and diplomatic tool serving the US strategy for unipolar domination,” the spokesperson said.The North also took issue with the Quad’s newly announced “Critical Minerals Initiative Framework,” arguing it reflected Washington’s attempt to expand the concept of security into the economic sphere in pursuit of supply chain dominance.The spokesperson said the US-led grouping had challenged North Korea’s “legitimate exercise of sovereign rights” by calling for denuclearization.“Explicitly speaking once again, the ‘denuclearization’ of the DPRK will never happen,” the spokesperson said, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.The statement added that Pyongyang would continue to defend its “sovereign rights, security interests and development rights” and join efforts opposing “exclusive groups” and “inter-camp confrontation” in the region.In a joint statement released after the New Delhi meeting, the four Quad members urged Pyongyang to comply with relevant UN Security Council resolutions and condemned North Korea’s “unlawful development of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction.”“We reaffirm our commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea in accordance with relevant UNSCRs and urge North Korea to abide by all its obligations under the relevant UNSCRs,” the statement said.The Quad members also voiced “grave concern” over North Korea’s cyber activities and the overseas deployment of North Korean IT workers, saying they help fund Pyongyang’s weapons programs.“We will continue to support efforts to address contraventions of North Korea-related UNSCRs,” the statement added, while also urging all UN member states to fully implement sanctions against the North, including bans on arms transfers.The grouping expressed its “deep concern about countries that are deepening military cooperation with North Korea,” saying such cooperation undermines the global nonproliferation regime. The statement also reiterated the need for the “immediate resolution” of the abductions issue involving Japanese nationals.North Korea has repeatedly declared itself a permanent nuclear weapons state and has increasingly rejected past language suggesting any willingness to negotiate denuclearization.The latest exchange comes amid growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific region: The Quad has expanded cooperation on security, supply chains and emerging technologies, while North Korea continues to advance its missile and nuclear programs