North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stressed his country will never abandon the nuclear weapons it needs to counter the United States, which he accused of pushing to weaken the North’s defenses and eventually collapse his government, state media said Friday.
Kim made the comments during a speech Thursday at North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament, where members passed legislation governing the use of nuclear weapons, which Kim described as a step to cement the country’s nuclear status and make clear such weapons will not be bargained.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s office said he was “deeply concerned” about the new law, and noted that the North’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons program “continues to disregard the resolutions of the Security Council to cease such activities.”
