SEOUL, April 9 (UPI) — Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, on Wednesday reaffirmed Pyongyang’s self-proclaimed status as a nuclear state and slammed U.S. calls to eliminate its arsenal as “nonsensical” and a “daydream.”

“If anyone openly talks about dismantlement of nuclear weapons before us or seeks to revive the dead concept of ‘denuclearization’ under various pretexts, it just constitutes the most hostile act of denying the sovereignty of the DPRK,” Kim said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

Kim’s remarks came in response to a joint statement issued Thursday by the top diplomats of the United States, South Korea and Japan, who reaffirmed their “resolute commitment to the complete denuclearization” of North Korea.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi met on the margins of a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels and discussed trilateral cooperation against the North Korean threat.

The allies “emphasized the need to address together the DPRK’s nuclear and missile programs and to maintain and strengthen the sanctions regime against the DPRK,” the statement said, referring to the U.N. Security Council resolutions in place against Pyongyang.

Kim claimed the joint pledge exposed the “uneasiness” of the three countries in addressing North Korea’s denuclearization, saying they know it is only “a daydream that can never come true.”

“If they frantically cry out for ‘denuclearization,’ really believing in it, they must be termed nonsensical,” she said.

“The position of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as a nuclear weapons state … is permanently fixed in its supreme and basic state law,” she added.

In September 2022, the North passed a law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state and giving it the right to conduct a preemptive nuclear strike to protect itself. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called the decision “irreversible” and later amended the country’s constitution to enshrine the permanent growth of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal.

North Korea has maintained a belligerent tone toward the United States despite ongoing speculation that U.S. President Donald Trump may look to revive nuclear negotiations with Kim.

During Trump’s first term, the two leaders held a pair of high-profile summits and met briefly a third time at the DMZ. The diplomatic outreach failed to result in a nuclear deal, however, and Pyongyang has accelerated the development of its weapons programs in the intervening years.

Last week, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that there has been communication with North Korea and that the two sides would “probably do something at some point.”

“I have a very good relationship with [Kim],” Trump said. “I think it’s very important. He’s a big nuclear nation and he’s a very smart guy.”

North Korea has also continued to conduct weapons tests since Trump returned to office in January, including test-firing a new anti-aircraft missile system last month as South Korea and the United States wrapped up a major joint military exercise.

Tensions flared at the inter-Korean border on Tuesday evening when a group of around ten armed North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the military demarcation line inside the DMZ.

The soldiers quickly returned across the border after the South’s military fired warning shots, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters.