Kim Jong Un: DPRK will strive for world denuclearization
Kim Jong Un: DPRK will strive for world denuclearization
Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un declared that the DPRK is a “responsible nuclear weapons state” which will “strive for world denuclearization”, at the ruling party’s first congress in 30 years, the country’s state media KCNA reported.
In his report on the work of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) at the party’s 7th Congress, delivered to about 3,000 representatives from across the country, Kim emphasized that the DPRK will not resort to nuclear weapons first unless “its sovereignty is encroached upon” by any aggressive hostile forces with nukes, according to the KCNA.
The country’s nuclear weapons and missile programs have brought the DPRK “dignity and national power,” said Kim.
Kim stressed that the WPK has worked hard towards implementing its strategic line of advancing economic growth and nuclear development at the same time, adding that the most important and urgent aim of the party is to realize national reunification.
Considered a significant political event for the country, the congress is “not only a decision-making occasion”, but is also “a chance for the DPRK to consolidate its core leadership”, reported China’s Xinhua News Agency. The last such congress was held in 1980, before current leader Kim Jong Un was even born.
Kim Jong Un: DPRK will strive for world denuclearization
More than 100 foreign journalists were invited to take photographs and videos outside the venue and were permitted to speak with some Pyongyang residents nearby, but were not allowed to enter the April 25 House of Culture where the congress is being held.
The run-up to the party congress coincided with the visit last week of three Nobel Prize laureates to the country, who were in Pyongyang to talk with students. Following their visit, the BBC reported that the delegation was critical of the effect of international sanctions on healthcare and scientific research in the country, with Nobel laureate for Medicine Sir Richard Roberts saying the “embargo is really hurting the scientists and that’s a great shame.”
In the meantime South Korea and the United States agreed on Saturday to further mount pressure on the DPRK.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se spoke with US Secretary of State John Kerry via telephone earlier in the day and reached the agreement, the ministry said in a press release.
“(They) agreed to keep sending strong warning messages together with the international community to deter additional nuclear tests and provocations by the DPRK,” the ministry said.
The two officials also shared their assessment of the DPRK’s ongoing ruling party congress, and the possibility of further “provocations” by Pyongyang, according to the press release.
CCTV
