A North Korean minister said on Monday in a rare address to the UN that Pyongyang would never surrender its nuclear weapons, but left open the door to diplomacy.

Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Kim Son Gyong made the trip to New York to attend the United Nation's annual high-level week – a role previously performed at a lower level by the country's ambassador.

"(The) imposition of 'Denuclearisation' on the DPRK is tantamount to demanding it to surrender sovereignty and right to existence and violate the Constitution," said Kim.

"We will never give up nuclear which is our state law, national policy and sovereign power as well as the right to existence. Under any circumstances, we will never walk away from this position."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said last week that he was open to talks with the United States, provided that he can keep his nuclear arsenal, according to a report by the official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 is under rafts of UN sanctions for its banned weapons programmes.

The country is believed to operate multiple uranium enrichment facilities, South Korea's spy agency has said, including one at its Yongbyon nuclear site, which Pyongyang purportedly decommissioned after talks – although it later reactivated the facility in 2021.

South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung vowed last week at the United Nations to work to end the "vicious cycle" of tensions with the North as he promised not to seek regime change.

"The DPRK will, as in the past, so in the future, collaborate with all countries and nations that oppose and reject aggression, intervention, domination and subjugation and aspire after independence and justice, irrespective of differences in ideas and systems," said Kim Son Gyong, without specifically referring to any country. (AFP)