Russian Foreign Minister: “North Korea Denuclearization Completed" IAEA: "Need to Dialogue on Acknowledging Possession"

Russian Foreign Minister: “North Korea Denuclearization Completed" IAEA: "Need to Dialogue on Acknowledging Possession"

The Russian Foreign Minister said on the 27th that “the term ‘North Korea Denuclearization’ is meaningless” and that it is a “closed issue” and a “closed issue,” Reuters reported.
On the 26th, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov stated on the Foreign Ministry website that Moscow sees the concept of North Korea’s “denuclearization” as a “closed issue” as it understands North Korea’s logic of relying on nuclear weapons as a basis for defense.

Reporting on a question posted on the Foreign Ministry website, Lavrov said that Russia will stand with North Korea in resisting what the United States describes as an “extended nuclear deterrent” in the Asia-Pacific region along with South Korea and Japan, Reuters reported.

"This is clearly a real and extremely serious threat to regional security," Lavrov said on the day, adding, "In this situation, the term 'denuclearization' as applied to North Korea has lost its meaning. For us, this issue is closed," Reuters reported.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it has been building closer diplomatic and military ties with North Korea, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visiting each other.

 

Foreign Minister Lavrov said on the day, “It is because I understand North Korea’s principled position that nuclear weapons and missiles are the foundation of security,” and “If the United States publicly designates the South Korea-U.S. alliance as a nuclear alliance and adds Japan to it, it is a real and very serious threat to regional security.”

AP reported on the 26th that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said, “The international community must recognize the fact that ‘North Korea possesses nuclear weapons’ and come to the table for dialogue,” and that North Korea has been a “de facto nuclear weapon possessor state” since 2006, and that “since then, there has been no involvement from the international community, and since then, North Korea’s nuclear program has expanded significantly.”

The South Korea-U.S. summit meeting issued a joint statement in May 2022 stating, “President Yoon Seok-yeol and President Biden reaffirmed their shared goal of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and agreed to further strengthen the seamless cooperation between South Korea and the United States to achieve this goal. The two leaders shared the view that North Korea’s nuclear program poses a grave threat to peace and stability not only on the Korean Peninsula but also in the rest of Asia and around the world.”

 

On September 26th last year, President Yoon Seok-yeol said in his Armed Forces Day speech, “If North Korea provokes us, our military will immediately respond, and if North Korea uses nuclear weapons, we will bring an end to the North Korean regime through an overwhelming response from the ROK-US alliance,” referring to the ‘possession of North Korean nuclear weapons.’

President Yoon voluntarily changed the existing ‘North Korean provocation’ and ‘North Korean nuclear threat’ stages to ‘North Korean nuclear provocation,’ and while entering the process of acknowledging ‘possession of North Korean nuclear weapons,’ he adopted the ‘acknowledgment of North Korean nuclear weapons’ from the ‘North Korean nuclear scenario’ strategy to the ‘end of the river (if provoked, the stock market will respond strongly and bring an end to the North Korean regime)’ policy.

Refer to <Yoon Seok-yeol Changes ‘North Korean Provocation’ to ‘North Korean Nuclear Provocation’ and Acknowledges ‘Possession of North Korean Nuclear Weapons,’ September 26th, 2023>

 

At a meeting with Korean correspondents to the UN ahead of his speech at the UN on the 26th, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol said, “We once again strongly urge the North Korean authorities to immediately stop developing nuclear weapons and missiles, take measures to improve the human rights and livelihoods of North Korean citizens, and respond to our proposals for dialogue and cooperation.”