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SEOUL, May 7 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is not bound under any circumstances by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), its representative to the United Nations said Thursday.
"I strongly condemn the shameless behavior of certain countries, alongside the United States; which take issue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s lawful and legitimate possession of nuclear weapons and its inherent right as a sovereign state to exercise self-defensive measures," Kim Song, Pyongyang's top diplomat to the U.N., said in a statement carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency. DPRK is the North's official name.
The statement came as the 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is currently underway at U.N. headquarters. It also came amid expectations that North Korea could be on the agenda at the planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week.
Kim claimed that Pyongyang "exercised its right to withdraw from the NPT in a transparent way," arguing that what he called attempts by the U.S. and other Western nations to force Pyongyang to fulfill its obligations under the treaty are "a flagrant violation of the spirit of the treaty."
He added that North Korea's status as "a nuclear power" does not change regardless of outside circumstances, and that it is not bound by the NPT treaty "under any circumstances."
This file photo shows United Nations headquarters in New York (Yonhap)
jaeyeon.woo@yna.co.kr
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