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North slams denuclearization as 'pipe dream' ahead of Lee-Xi summit

Published: 01 Nov. 2025, 15:24

President Lee Jae Myung, right, chats with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the APEC summit gala dinner at the Lahan Select hotel in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang, on Oct. 31. [YONHAP]

North Korea denounced the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as a "pipe dream" that can never be realized on Saturday, with Seoul saying President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to discuss the issue during their summit talks.

Lee and Xi are scheduled to hold their first summit talks Saturday afternoon on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the southeastern city of Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang. The presidential office said denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is on the agenda.

North Korea's vice foreign minister, Pak Myong-ho, criticized South Korea for seeking to raise the denuclearization issue whenever an opportunity arises, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"We will show with patience that denuclearization is a 'pipe dream' which can never be realized even if it talks about it a thousand times," Pak said in a statement carried by the KCNA.

He said South Korea remains unaware that "struggling to deny the DPRK's position as a nuclear weapons state and talking about its daydream of realizing the denuclearization just reveal its lack of common sense," referring to the North by the initialism of its official name.

The North appears to protest the South Korean presidential office's announcement on the denuclearization agenda, but it also seems to express its discomfort to China over the issue ahead of the Lee-Xi summit.

In May of last year, Pyongyang denounced Seoul for stating its commitment to denuclearization of the peninsula in a joint declaration issued after the trilateral summit among leaders of South Korea, China and Japan. The North rejected it as "wanton interference" in North Korea's internal affairs."

Yonhap