Overview
- The IAEA adopted a resolution criticizing North Korea’s weapons programme, and Pyongyang formally rejected that resolution through statements carried by state media.
- Kim Yo Jong accused the IAEA of a 'biased viewpoint and double standards' and said the agency ignores what North Korea calls U.S. and South Korean proliferation actions.
- North Korea’s Foreign Ministry declared the country’s status as a nuclear power irreversible and tied that status to its nuclear deterrent.
- State media reported that Kim Jong Un completed a three-day inspection of major munitions factories and ordered faster modernization of artillery and other forces.
- Analysts link North Korea’s military overhaul to a 2024 mutual-defence treaty with Russia and to combat experience connected to deployments related to Russia’s war in Ukraine, with possible effects on regional tensions and arms control talks.