TOKYO, April 21. /TASS/. North Korea’s status of a nuclear power is final and irreversible, and G7 members have no authority to denounce Pyongyang for exercising its sovereign right, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said in a statement on Friday.

"G7 has neither authority nor qualification to say this or that about the DPRK's exercise of its sovereignty," reads the statement, published by North Korea’s news agency KCNA. "The US and the West have no right to say this or that about the DPRK's position as a nuclear weapons state, and it will never change no matter what they say."

In her opinion, "it is anachronistic to think that the right to and capability for nuclear strike is exclusive to Washington."

"Explicitly speaking, it is the essence of the DPRK's access to nuclear weapons that it was compelled to have access to nukes literally to defend itself from the US threat, not to be recognized by others," the top North Korean diplomat continued. "We make it clear that we don't have any interest in what G7 does but if it shows any behavioral attempt to infringe upon the sovereignty and fundamental interests of the DPRK, it will be completely deterred by strong counteraction."

Following a meeting in the Japanese city of Karuizawa, which ended on April 18, foreign ministers of the G7 group of nations adopted a joint statement to condemn North Korea’s ballistic missile launches and urged full denuclearization of the country. They also said that the DPRK will never get the the status of a nuclear-weapon state in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The DPRK has already conducted 12 missile launches this year, including the first-ever test launch of the Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile.