North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly, passed the legislation on Thursday as a replacement to a 2013 law that first outlined the country's nuclear status, according to the country's state news agency KCNA.

"The utmost significance of legislating nuclear weapons policy is to draw an irretrievable line so that there can be no bargaining over our nuclear weapons," it quoted Kim as telling the assembly. He added that he would never surrender the weapons even if the country faced 100 years of sanctions.