North Korea on Monday vowed to “steadily update and strengthen” its nuclear armed forces and blamed the Foreign Ministers of G7 states for infringing on its sovereign rights by demanding the end of its nuclear weapons programme, state media reported.

The country’s Foreign Ministry said that its “nuclear armed forces will exist forever as a powerful means of justice which defends the sovereignty of the state, territorial integrity and fundamental interests”, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea’s nuclear development program “prevents a war in the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia and guarantees a strategic stability of the world”, a Ministry spokesperson said on Monday.

North Korea’s statement followed last week’s meeting of the G7 Foreign Ministers, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in Quebec, Canada.

Those Ministers on Friday called on Pyongyang to “abandon all its nuclear weapons and any other weapons of mass destruction as well as ballistic missile programs in accordance with all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions”.

North Korean diplomats, in their statement, said the nuclear program was “fixed permanently” by the country’s laws, adding that those laws “will not change according to the recognition of anyone.”

North Korea is building a nuclear-powered submarine, state media said earlier this month.