Published on 6/14/2026
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Last update: 06:50 (Mecca time)
North Korea said the issue of its nuclear weapons had been “irreversibly resolved,” criticizing recent talks between the United States and South Korea on nuclear deterrence.
“The absurd rhetoric of the United States and its allies, coupled with their cooperation in posing a nuclear threat against Pyongyang, will never affect North Korea’s final and irreversible position as a nuclear-weapon state,” North Korea’s KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
Last week, officials from the United States and South Korea discussed in Seoul ways to strengthen nuclear deterrence and prepare to confront North Korea’s growing weapons program, during a meeting of the Nuclear Advisory Group.
As of January 2025, the nine nuclear-armed countries – Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea – possessed 12,241 nuclear warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The United States and Russia possess about 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons, and have implemented major programs to modernize them in recent years, according to the institute.
