In a joint statement following a three-day meeting in Niigata, Japan, finance ministers and central bankers of the G7 countries expressed their concern about the “financial risk posed by Iran” and about “threats posed by North Korea’s illegal activities to build up weapons of mass destruction.”
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“The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) plays an important role in protecting the integrity of the international financial system. We share the grave concern about the threat posed by the illegal activities of the DPRK to build up weapons of mass destruction, as well as the financing of an unprecedented number of recent launches of DPRK ICBMs,” – noted in the document.
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The parties also noted concerns about “the financial risk posed by Iran.”
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As the DPRK Foreign Ministry stated earlier, the position of the DPRK as a world nuclear power is final and irreversible, it does not need international recognition, the possession of nuclear weapons does not violate any treaties and is already enshrined in the country’s legislation and is necessary not for the sake of status, but for protection from the United States with its hostile policy . The Foreign Ministry also criticized the statement of the G7 foreign ministers on the denuclearization of North Korea, calling its content interference in internal affairs, a violation of sovereignty. They added that measures to strengthen the defense capability of the DPRK are its sovereign right and are needed to protect the state and its territorial integrity, as well as to stable control of the situation in the Korean Peninsula region against the backdrop of “crazy and provocative” military actions by the United States and its allies. According to the DPRK Foreign Ministry, it is not the DPRK that should change, but the United States with its “archaic” opinion that only they can possess nuclear weapons, Washington will now have to understand that only “the complete abolition of the hostile policy towards the DPRK will ensure their security.”
