SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to irreversibly cement North Korea's status as a nuclear power and maintain a hard-line stance toward South Korea during a speech on Monday to the Supreme People's Assembly in Pyongyang.

Kim Jong Un called South Korea "the most hostile" state and accused the United States of global state terrorism and aggression. He said North Korea will play a more forceful role in a united front against Washington with rising anti-American sentiment.

"The government of our republic will continue to consolidate our absolutely irreversible status as a nuclear power and will aggressively wage a struggle against hostile forces to crush their (anti-North Korean) provocations and schemes," Kim Jong Un said. In his speech, Kim Jong Un expressed pride in North Korea's rapid expansion of nuclear weapons and missiles in recent years.

Kim Jong Un did not mention U.S. President Donald Trump by name in his speech. He said that adversaries can choose confrontation or peaceful coexistence and that North Korea is prepared to respond to either choice.

Kim Jong Un's comments in his speech aligned with his statements at last month's Workers' Party Congress, where he vilified Seoul and left open the door for dialogue with the Trump administration. At that congress, Kim Jong Un urged Washington to drop its demands for North Korea's nuclear disarmament as a precondition for talks.

The Supreme People's Assembly concluded its two-day session on Monday and passed a revised constitution. State media did not specify the changes made to the revised constitution.

Since his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019 over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea, Kim Jong Un has suspended all meaningful dialogue with Washington and Seoul. In 2024, Kim Jong Un declared that North Korea would abandon its long-term goal of peaceful unification with South Korea.

Kim Jong Un has implemented campaigns to block the influence of South Korean culture and language among North Koreans. South Korea helped arrange Kim Jong Un's first meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019.