Kim Yo Jong blasts ASEAN denuclearisation push
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- Kim Yo Jong attacked ASEAN in a KCNA statement on Monday (Jul 27), calling its push for a denuclearised Korean peninsula "stupid and foolish" and accusing the forum of echoing US rhetoric while ignoring North Korea's constitution, which enshrined its nuclear status in 2023.
- ASEAN expressed "grave concern" over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons development at its annual regional forum last week, stressing dialogue for "lasting peace and stability in a denuclearised Korean Peninsula."
- Kim Yo Jong warned ASEAN against being "a hired mouthpiece for the US," framing the denuclearisation call as a "hostile attitude" that has "already lost its meaning conceptually and practically."
- Kim Yo Jong said in June that North Korea's nuclear weapons programme is "the line of no retreat," reinforcing Pyongyang's longstanding insistence on nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles despite UN Security Council sanctions.
- Pyongyang has declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear state since Kim Jong Un's 2019 summit with US President Donald Trump collapsed over the scope of denuclearisation and sanctions relief.
Why it matters: North Korea's most prominent foreign-policy voice is publicly telling ten Southeast Asian nations to stop echoing Washington's denuclearisation line, a diplomatic snub that narrows the regional pressure track on Pyongyang just as Kim Jong Un's regime is entrenching its nuclear status in its 2023 constitution and dismissing that demand as legally meaningless.
