North Korea is touting its nuclear and missile capabilities and amplifying its message that "denuclearization is impossible," ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Pyongyang on Dec. 8-9. Kim Yo-jong, deputy department director of the North's Workers' Party, said in a statement released Sunday that "our status as a nuclear-weapons state is an absolute line that cannot be crossed in retreat," adding, "We will never tolerate any threat to or compromise on our sovereignty and security." The North's Rodong Sinmun reported the same day that Kim Jong-un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission, visited a defense company and ordered the production capacity for ballistic and cruise missiles to be expanded to 2.5 times the existing level within the next five years. Earlier, after inspecting the Yongbyon nuclear complex, which is presumed to house uranium enrichment facilities, Kim boasted that the North's nuclear material production capacity stands at "a level exceeding twice the previous amount."
The situation in which North Korea is openly advancing its nuclear program and massively flaunting its nuclear arsenal ahead of Xi's Pyongyang visit—taking place immediately after the U.S.-China and China-Russia summits—must not be taken lightly. Moreover, the attitudes of major powers surrounding the Korean Peninsula, including China and Russia, are far from ordinary at this moment. At the U.S.-China summit held last month in Beijing, the United States clearly stated that "the two countries confirmed the shared goal of North Korea's denuclearization." Yet China avoided any related mention, and a few days later at the China-Russia summit, the two omitted North Korea's denuclearization entirely and issued a joint statement opposing "military pressure and unilateral sanctions against North Korea."
We must squarely face the scheme behind North Korea openly publicizing its nuclear buildup just before Xi's visit. The intent is obvious: to solidify its status as a nuclear-weapons state through the North Korea-China summit and to block the international spread of the denuclearization issue. As South Korea is the greatest victim of North Korea's nuclear weapons, the government must urge North Korea's denuclearization to the international community with a stronger voice. Under no circumstances should the reins on denuclearization-cooperation diplomacy be loosened for the sake of restoring relations with the North. To prevent the worst-case scenario in which North Korea attains the status of a nuclear-weapons state, its attempt to secure that status—following its display of nuclear might—must be thoroughly crushed on the basis of strong Korea-U.S. and Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation. At the same time, the government must call on China and Russia to play a responsible role in driving North Korea's denuclearization, so they cannot effectively abet the North's moves to advance its nuclear capabilities through a stance of standing idly by.
