North Korea says denuclearisation is over, rejects US-South Korea talks

North Korea said denuclearisation was “terminated irreversibly,” delivering a blunt rejection of the latest U.S.-South Korea nuclear deterrence talks and signaling that Pyongyang intends to lock in its nuclear status. The North Korean foreign ministry, speaking through state media KCNA, said the United States and its allies could not alter what it called North Korea’s “irreversible position” as a nuclear weapons state.

The declaration followed the sixth U.S.-South Korea Nuclear Consultative Group meeting in Seoul on June 11, where U.S. and South Korean defense officials co-chaired discussions with officials from the defense, foreign affairs and intelligence ministries. The two allies said they focused on strengthening nuclear deterrence and readiness against North Korea’s expanding weapons program, while reaffirming their shared goal of denuclearizing the North and tightening extended deterrence coordination.

Pyongyang’s response fit a familiar pattern of escalation. Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister, called the U.S. push for denuclearisation an “anachronistic dream” in early June and said North Korea would continue expanding its nuclear arsenal. The latest statement also rested on a legal and political trajectory that has hardened for years, beginning with North Korea’s first nuclear test announcement in 2006, followed by a nuclear forces policy law in September 2022 and a constitutional amendment in September 2023 that enshrined that policy and the growth of the arsenal.

For Washington, Seoul and Tokyo, the practical meaning is stark: the center of gravity has shifted from rollback to deterrence and containment. That means more attention to missile defense, more visible extended deterrence, and tighter alliance coordination around warning, readiness and crisis response. South Korea and the European Union have reiterated that North Korea will never be recognized as a nuclear-weapon state, but Pyongyang’s language suggests future diplomacy will have to start from that refusal rather than from any realistic path to disarmament.