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| ▲ The foreign ministers of the Quad pose for a photo at the State Department in Washington, D.C., on July 1, 2025, in this Reuters photo. (Yonhap) |
N Korea-nuclear
N. Korea bristles at Quad statement that demands Pyongyang's denuclearization
By Park Boram
SEOUL, July 4 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Friday lashed out at a recent statement by the United States, Australia, Japan and India that demands the North's complete denuclearization, accusing the Quad security grouping of committing a "coercive" act to change Pyongyang's stance.
North Korea's foreign ministry issued the criticism, carried by the Korean Central News Agency, days after the foreign ministers of the U.S.-led Quad reiterated their commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea in a statement adopted during their meeting in Washington.
The North Korean ministry called the move a "grave political provocation," accusing the U.S. of "attempting to unilaterally change the existing situation" on the Korean Peninsula "by force or coercive way."
The foreign ministry said it "strongly denounces and rejects the U.S. malicious act of clearly exposing its invariable hostile intention against" North Korea, expressing "serious concern over the negative consequences to be entailed by it."
It also accused the U.S. of interfering in the sovereignty of an independent nation, stirring up confrontation and creating instability in international relations, claiming the country is a major risk factor hindering peace and security in the region and the world.
"Nothing can change the position of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as a nuclear weapons state," the foreign ministry also said, warning that it is within its sovereignty to take "appropriate and reflective countermeasures of the self-defensive nature."
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