N.K. leader's sister dismisses IAEA's denuclearization calls, reiterates nuclear status - Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, Sept. 17 (Yonhap) -- Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, on Thursday rejected international calls for denuclearization as "all noises," calling the regime's nuclear status "absolute."

She made the remarks in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as the 70th regular session of the IAEA General Conference is currently under way in Vienna, Austria.

The conference has voiced concern over North Korea's expanding nuclear capacity, urging Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Ahead of the session, the agency also released the IAEA Director General's Safeguards Report on North Korea, detailing a substantial increase in Pyongyang's uranium enrichment capacity and the expansion of its core nuclear facilities.

The North Korean leader's sister dismissed the calls as "all noises, not surprising and not new."

"No matter how desperately the IAEA and the West may hold periodic meetings and talk about the denuclearization according to the fixed scenario, they can have no effect on the will and ability of the DPRK to take all necessary measures to defend the supreme interests of the state," she said. DPRK is short for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

"The DPRK's position as a nuclear weapons state is absolute which cannot reverse with anything," she argued, adding, "The reality in which the nuclear position of the DPRK has been permanently settled physically and legally cannot change even a bit.

"No one and nothing can ever reverse the crucial changes in the strength and position of the DPRK and prevent them in the future, too."

This file photo, taken Feb. 10, 2018, is of Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister. (Yonhap)