North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son-gyong told the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday that the country's status as a nuclear weapons state can never be reversed "in any circumstances," and hours later Pyongyang's foreign ministry issued a memorandum accusing Washington of driving the global nuclear order into "the worst crisis" through proliferation. The memorandum, carried by state media, cited US arms-control withdrawals and nuclear-powered submarine cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo, and the AUKUS pact (a US-UK-Australia security partnership), as evidence of an emerging nuclear alliance in Asia-Pacific. The statements follow a joint call by the US, South Korean and Japanese foreign ministers for complete denuclearisation and a return to talks, underscoring how far apart the sides remain.