Kim Yo-jong Rejects IAEA Calls, Defends North Korea’s Nuclear Status

Kim Yo-jong, department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and sister of Kim Jong-un, issued a statement carried by KCNA on Sept. 17, 2026, rejecting denuclearization calls. The statement came as the 70th regular session of the IAEA General Conference met in Vienna and voiced concern over North Korea's nuclear capacity, urging Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner in compliance with the NPT. Ahead of the session the IAEA released its Director General's Safeguards Report on North Korea, which detailed a substantial increase in uranium enrichment capacity and expansion of core nuclear facilities. In the statement she called the appeals "all noises, not surprising and not new" and said: "The DPRK's position as a nuclear weapons state is absolute which cannot reverse with anything." She added that the nuclear position "has been permanently settled physically and legally" and "cannot change even a bit," and that IAEA and Western meetings "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." Coverage contains no factual disputes. North Korea's stated position remains unchanged.