PYONGYANG, May 7. /TASS/. The DPRK is not bound by its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and the country’s nuclear status remains unchanged, said North Korea's permanent representative to the United Nations Kim Song, as quoted by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"The position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state does not change in accordance with rhetorical assertion or unilateral desire of outsiders," he said. "Clarifying once again, the DPRK is not bound by the NPT in any respect."
According to the DPRK ambassador, the NPT Review Conference has ceased to fulfill its mission, having become, at the behest of the West, a venue for criticizing sovereign states. This is the fundamental reason why the global non-proliferation system is weakening, Kim Song noted.
"The soundness and legality of the NPT is not challenged by a sovereign state existing outside the treaty exercising its rights, it's eroding from the inside due to some parties like the US not complying with the treaty, as they are arbitrarily abusing the nature and application scope of the treaty," Kim Song asserted.
"It should be the essential point in implementing the NPT and the main agenda item of the current review conference to rectify the violation of treaty obligations of the US and some countries which are now neglecting their obligations to nuclear disarmament as parties to the NPT and resorting to such proliferation acts as to offer "extended deterrence" and transfer of nuclear submarine technology to non-nuclear states," the DPRK ambassador to the UN emphasized.
Kim Song recalled that the DPRK legitimately exercised its right to withdraw from the treaty and is committed to actively contributing to global security and strategic stability.
On January 10, 2003, North Korea announced its final withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, to which it had been a party since 1985.