North Korea declares nuclear statehood 'permanently enshrined'

FILE PHOTO: This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on October 10, 2022 shows North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un monitoring a North Korean missile launch at an undisclosed location. - KCNA via KNS/AFP

SEOUL: North Korea said its status as a nuclear-armed state is "permanently enshrined" in its law and "irreversible", state media reported Monday (Sept 15), condemning the United States for demanding its denuclearisation.

"Recently, at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors, the US once again committed a grave political provocation by branding our possession of nuclear weapons as illegal and clamouring about denuclearisation," the North's UN mission said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.