North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, second from top, inspects a nuclear-material production base with officials, in this file photo published by the Korean Central News Agency, Jan. 29. Yonhap

North Korea on Monday denounced the top diplomats of the Group of Seven (G7) countries' joint call for Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons, threatening to strengthen its nuclear forces both in "quality and quantity."

After a meeting in La Malbaie, Canada, the foreign ministers of the G7 advanced nations issued a joint statement Friday that calls for North Korea to give up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and condemns its military aid to support Russia's war in Ukraine.

North Korea's foreign ministry denounced G7 for taking issue with the North's just exercise of its sovereign rights, saying it is the G7 that focuses on "illegal and malicious nuclear proliferation" under the pretext of nuclear sharing or providing extended deterrence, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"G7, which has turned into a nuclear criminal group gravely threatening the global peace and security, should thoroughly abandon its anachronistic ambition for nuclear hegemony before talking about someone's 'denuclearization' and 'dismantlement of nukes,'" the ministry said in a statement carried by the KCNA.

North Korea said the country's status of a nuclear state, stipulated by the constitution, will not change regardless of whether the outside world recognizes it or not.

North Korea "will steadily update and strengthen its nuclear armed forces both in quality and quantity in response to the nuclear threat from outside as stipulated in its Constitution and other domestic laws," the ministry said. (Yonhap)