Escalation: Kim Yo-jong declares nukes nonnegotiable

Kim Yo-jong said North Korea’s status as a nuclear power is “absolutely non-negotiable” on the eve of Xi Jinping’s first Pyongyang visit in seven years. She called U.S. denuclearization demands an “anachronistic dream” and said “no one will be bound by” U.S. rhetoric. She also dismissed claims that Donald Trump and Xi agreed on a denuclearization goal last month as “false information.”

Days earlier, Kim Jong-un toured a newly inaugurated nuclear materials plant and said production capacity for weapons-grade material has more than doubled in five years. He said nuclear forces will be strengthened “at an exponential rate” and finalized a plan to expand them.

Photos from the site showed a large centrifuge hall packed with cascades, indicating a uranium enrichment facility. This is the third time North Korea has publicly shown an enrichment site, after Yongbyon in 2010 and another revealed in 2024. In parallel, Kim ordered missile production capacity to rise 2.5 times over the five-year plan.

AI-synthesized from multiple reported sources