Seoul (AFP) – North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme is “absolutely non-negotiable”, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un said in a statement carried by state media on Sunday, ahead of a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

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“Our status as a nuclear power is absolutely non-negotiable,” Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong said in a statement published by North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun, adding that the North “will not tolerate any threats”.

A key player in the country’s communications and foreign policy, Kim Yo Jong’s statement came on the eve of Xi’s visit to North Korea, scheduled to take place from Monday to Tuesday, according to state media.

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Kim Yo Jong, in her statement, went on to slam Washington over its comments that the goal of North Korea’s denuclearisation had been reaffirmed during last month’s summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Beijing.

The White House posted a fact sheet following the summit stating that “President Trump and President Xi confirmed their shared goal to denuclearize North Korea”, which Kim Yo Jong said was false.

“Some officials in the United States still have yet to awaken from their escapist and anachronistic dream,” she said.

“This is nothing more than Washington’s habitual dissemination of false information.”

She rejected Washington’s attempts to deny or challenge the North’s status as a nuclear power, saying it “carries no legal force”.

“The policy of continuously strengthening the country’s self-defensive nuclear deterrent, as set out by the nation’s leader, is an irreversible course that must be implemented without fail,” she added.

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