North Korea has reaffirmed that it will not give up its nuclear weapons nor its status as a nuclear state.

North Korean diplomat Kim In-chol from the North’s permanent mission to the United Nations issued the position on Monday during a session of the UN General Assembly First Committee dealing with disarmament and international security matters.

Kim said that as long as imperialist countries’ nuclear weapons exist, North Korea will not give up or change its current status as a nuclear state, stressing that the regime recently amended its constitution to bolster and expand its nuclear force.

Kim also accused the United States of provoking a nuclear war against North Korea, mentioning a session of the South Korea-U.S. Nuclear Consultative Group, a key deterrence dialogue body.

Counselor Kim Sung-hoon of Seoul’s permanent UN mission blasted what he called Pyongyang’s decades-long obsession with developing nuclear weapons and missiles and its continued, unprecedented provocations, calling them a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

The South Korean diplomat urged the North to give up such ambitions and return to dialogue, while also criticizing the regime’s new law allowing a preemptive nuclear strike in saying that threatening other countries with a nuclear attack is irresponsible.