Kim Song, Permanent Representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the UN, issued the following press statement on May 6:

At the 11 th NPT review conference now underway at the UN headquarters, the U.S. and some vassal countries are dampening the atmosphere of the conference, groundlessly taking issue with the present position and exercise of sovereign rights of the DPRK, a nuclear weapons state outside the treaty.

The NPT review conference, which should contribute to addressing the international issue of nuclear disarmament and the root cause of the danger of nuclear conflict, fails to fulfill its original mission and turns into a place of malicious accusation against the sovereign states, pursuant to the sinister political attempt of the U.S. and Western forces. This is the fundamental reason why the global non-proliferation system is weakening.

I denounce and reject in the strongest terms the brigandish and shameless acts of certain countries including the U.S. which are taking issue with the DPRK’s realistic and just possession of nuclear weapons through legal channels and the exercise of its inherent defensive rights as a sovereign state.

The wrong behavior of the U.S. and Western countries forcing the DPRK, which transparently exercised the right to withdraw from the treaty according to Article 10 of the NPT, to fulfill the treaty obligations is a wanton violation of the spirit of the treaty and in complete disregard of the purpose and principle of international law.

Before insisting obstinately on the compliance with treaty obligations of the DPRK, which legally withdrew from the NPT decades ago, the U.S. should answer first whether the same standards apply to the obligations of various international treaties and conventions from which it withdrew.

The soundness and legality of the NPT are not challenged by the exercise of the rights of a sovereign state existing outside the treaty, but are eroding from inside due to the non-compliance by some parties to the treaty including the U.S. which are arbitrarily abusing the nature and application scope of the treaty.

It should be the essential point in implementing the NPT and the main agenda item of the current review conference to rectify the violation of treaty obligations of the U.S. and some countries which are now neglecting the obligations to nuclear disarmament as the parties to the NPT and resorting to such proliferation acts as offer of “extended deterrence” and transfer of nuclear submarine technology to non-nuclear states.

The position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state does not change by rhetorical assertion or unilateral desire of outsiders.

Clarifying once again, the DPRK is not bound by the NPT in any case.

The DPRK will make a positive contribution to the efforts of the international community to ensure international peace and security and promote global strategic stability by remaining faithful to the law on the state nuclear force policy, which clarifies the mission of nuclear force, the principle of using nuclear weapons and the obligation to prevent proliferation in the most transparent way, and to the implementation of its obligations under the national constitution which fixes its legal position as a nuclear weapons state.