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Is Kim Yo-jong’s rebuke a sign North Korea is ditching Asean diplomacy?

A rare rebuke of Asean by the powerful sister of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un signals the bloc’s waning relevance to the nuclear-armed state, analysts…

By Samantha Johnson / July 27, 2026
A rare rebuke of Asean by the powerful sister of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un signals the bloc’s waning relevance to the nuclear-armed state, analysts say.

At the annual Asean Regional Forum held in the Philippines last Thursday, Asean expressed “grave concern” over the ongoing development of North Korea’s nuclear weapon and missile programmes.

The meeting also “stressed the importance of resuming peaceful dialogue among all concerned parties in order to realise lasting peace and stability in a denuclearised Korean peninsula”.

Pyongyang state media quoted Kim Yo-jong as retorting: “It is a failure in strategic thinking and logic and a manifestation of a stupid and foolish wild dream to still adhere to the ‘denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula’ which had already lost its meaning conceptually and practically.”

Kim Yo-jong said she “expressed strong dissatisfaction with the forum’s undisguised hostile attitude of going along with the US trumpeting about ‘denuclearisation’”, warning that the Asean forum should not be “misused as a hired mouthpiece for the US”.

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