North Korea says it is not bound by nuclear nonproliferation treaty

North Korea used the opening stretch of the 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to make a familiar point with fresh force: it does not consider itself bound by the pact that most of the world still uses to judge nuclear legitimacy. Kim Song, North Korea’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said the United States and other countries were “tarnishing the atmosphere” by raising North Korea’s nuclear weapons at the meeting in New York.

The statement did not amount to a new policy line so much as a hardening of one North Korea has held for years. Pyongyang formally withdrew from the NPT in 2003 after threatening to leave in 1993, and it has since conducted six nuclear tests, the latest on September 3, 2017. By repeating that its nuclear status “does not change in accordance with rhetorical assertion or unilateral desire of outsiders,” Kim underscored that North Korea still treats its arsenal as a settled fact, not a bargaining chip.

That position lands in direct conflict with the treaty system gathered at United Nations Headquarters from April 27 to May 22, 2026. The NPT first entered into force in 1970 and rests on three pillars: nonproliferation, disarmament and the peaceful use of nuclear energy. North Korea’s stance cuts against all three, and United Nations and International Atomic Energy Agency material continues to describe its nuclear and ballistic missile programs as unlawful and in violation of multiple Security Council resolutions.

The IAEA says it has not been able to verify the correctness and completeness of North Korea’s nuclear declarations, a gap that has persisted for years. That unresolved accounting problem matters beyond diplomacy. The Arms Control Association estimates that North Korea has assembled about 50 nuclear warheads and enough fissile material for 70 to 90 weapons, a reminder that the issue is not rhetorical theater but a growing strategic inventory.

For Washington and its allies, Kim’s comments signaled that sanctions, pressure and intermittent diplomacy have not altered Pyongyang’s core identity as a nuclear weapons state. South Korea used the conference to reaffirm its goal of North Korea’s complete denuclearization, highlighting how wide the divide remains between Pyongyang and the governments still trying to contain its program. The message from New York was blunt: North Korea is not preparing to rejoin the nonproliferation framework, and the diplomatic burden remains on others to manage the consequences.