North Korea has a message for longtime benefactor China: Pyongyang¡¯s nukes aren¡¯t going anywhere.

Just a day before Chinese leader Xi Jinping was due to arrive in North Korea ¡ª his first visit since 2019 ¡ª Kim Jong Un¡¯s regime made it increasingly clear that Pyongyang¡¯s ¡°denuclearization,¡± long a stated goal of both the United States and China, is off the table.

¡°The DPRK¡¯s status as a nuclear weapons state is the line of no retreat and it is a stark reality whether anyone recognizes it or not. Reality never changes by outsiders¡¯ hope or rhetoric,¡± the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North¡¯s leader, as saying Sunday.