Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of seeking to restore the status of a nuclear state.

Kim, vice department director of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, issued the criticism in a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency on Saturday.

Kim said that Zelensky suggested Ukraine may pursue nuclear weapons in a speech at the Munich Security Conference in February last year and Ukrainian officials expressed intent to seek nuclear capabilities multiple times.

Kim reportedly said that if Ukrainian authorities calculated that they could avoid Russia's mighty fire only by entering under the nuclear umbrella of the United States, they are clearly on the wrong path.

She also said that Zelensky's talk about the introduction of U.S. nuclear weapons and the independent development of nuclear weapons is a manifestation of his dangerous political ambition to prolong his remaining days at any cost by gambling with the destiny of his country and people.

In a speech at the Munich Security Conference in February 2022, Zelensky called for a United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the implementation of the 1994 Budapest memorandum.

Ukraine signed the treaty with the United States, Britain and Russia in 1994, agreeing to give up the nuclear arsenal left behind by the Soviet Union in its territory in exchange for security guarantees by the other signatories.

[Photo : YONHAP News]