Senior British royals gather as King Charles' nephew marries nurse Harriet Sperling

King Charles III and his wife Queen Camilla were among senior members of Britain's royal family who donned elegant hats, tailcoats and dresses to attend the wedding of Charles' nephew Peter Phillips on Saturday.

Phillips, the son of Charles' sister Princess Anne, wed Harriet Sperling, a nurse working for the National Health Service, in a church ceremony in the southwestern English village of Kemble.

They were joined by more than 100 guests including Prince William, Princess Catherine, Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice and other royals.

The bride wore a high-neck lace gown designed by Emilia Wickstead.

Phillips, 48, is the son Anne and her first husband Mark Phillips. He is the late Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest grandson, and William and Prince Harry’s first cousin.

Phillips split from his first wife Autumn Kelly, with whom he has two children. His engagement to Sperling was announced last year.

Well-wishers cheered when the bride and royals arrived, and after the ceremony guests held umbrellas in heavy rain to throw rose petals over the couple as they left the church.

Britain's Kate, Princess of Wales, at the wedding of Harriet Sperling to Peter Phillips at All Saints Church in Kemble, Gloucestershire, England, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (Ben Birchall/PA via AP)

Britain's King Charles III arriving for the wedding of Harriet Sperling to Peter Phillips at All Saints Church in Kemble, England, Saturday June 6, 2026. (Ben Birchall/PA via AP)

Britain's King Charles III arriving for the wedding of Harriet Sperling to Peter Phillips at All Saints Church in Kemble, England, Saturday June 6, 2026. (Ben Birchall/PA via AP)

Bride Harriet Sperling and bride groom Peter Phillips, accompanied by bridesmaids after their wedding ceremony at All Saints Church in Kemble, Gloucestershire, England, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (Ben Birchall/PA via AP)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called a U.S. push for the denuclearization of North Korea an “anachronistic dreams,” saying Sunday the North will steadily expand its nuclear arsenal in the face of U.S.-led threats.

The statement came a day before Chinese President Xi Jinping visits North Korea for talks with Kim Jong Un, in his first visit to the country in seven years.

“The U.S. assertion to backbite the status of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state has no legally binding force and no one will be bound by the U.S. unilateral rhetoric,” said Kim's sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name.

She dismissed as “false information” a U.S. announcement that President Donald Trump and Xi confirmed their shared goal to denuclearize North Korea in their summit in Beijing last month.

“Some officials in the United States have failed to wake from their escapist and anachronistic dreams,” Kim Yo Jong said.

North Korea has been focusing on enlarging its nuclear arsenal since Kim Jong Un's high-stakes diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019. Experts say the North Korean leader wants an international recognition as a nuclear state so that he could demand lifting of international economic sanctions on North Korea.

During a visit to a new nuclear materials production plant last week, Kim Jong Un said North Korea would bolster the country’s nuclear forces “at an exponential rate.” On Sunday, North Korea's state media reported Kim Jong Un visited a weapons factory the previous day and called for increasing the country's missile production capacity 2.5 times under a five-year plan period.

In her statement, Kim Yo Jong accused the U.S. and South Korea of pushing for “ceaseless arms build-ups," saying her brother's push for “steadily beefing up the nuclear war deterrent for self-defense” is “an irreversible final conclusion to be carried out unconditionally.”

Analysts say Xi's visit to North Korea is largely meant to reassert China's influence over North Korea, whose foreign policy priority has shifted to Russia in recent years. They say Xi will likely refrain from directly raising the denuclearization issue and offer economic assistance programs during his meeting with Kim Jong Un.

North Korea has sent troops and conventional weapons to Russia to back its war efforts against Ukraine. South Korean and U.S. officials say North Korea has received economic and other assistance from Russia in return.

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un, front right, visits a new facility to produce nuclear bomb fuels at an undisclosed place in North Korea Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

FILE - Kim Yo Jong, a sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 2, 2019. (Jorge Silva/Pool Photo via AP, File)