Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, attends a reception in the Great Hall of People following a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing on September 3, 2025. [AFP/YONHAP]
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.
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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.
