North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said Thursday that the country’s commitment to maintaining its nuclear weapons “through all ages” is irreversible, while criticizing recent trilateral discussions between the United States, South Korea and Japan.
Choe, speaking in her capacity as North Korea’s foreign minister, said the country’s determination to retain its nuclear arsenal would not change, KCNA reported.
She also said North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state would remain permanent.
Foreign ministers from the three countries met in New York on Monday and reaffirmed their commitment to the “complete” denuclearization of North Korea, while urging Pyongyang to resume dialogue.
Meanwhile, Pyongyang said Thursday that it had conducted a test launch of multiple-launch rockets earlier this week to assess their accuracy and demonstrate their capabilities.
The 240-millimeter-caliber rocket test was carried out Tuesday as part of a five-year program aimed at modernizing North Korea’s artillery and missile forces.
Pak Jong-chon, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party, was among senior military officials who supervised the test. He emphasized the need to concentrate what he described as the country’s most lethal and destructive strike capabilities along the southern border.
According to KCNA, the rockets are fitted with an “autonomous pinpoint guide system” and can hit targets up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) away in trajectory flight mode and up to 115 km away when using a combined glide mode.