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North Korea vows 'thousands-fold' revenge on US over sanctions North Korea vows 'thousands-fold' revenge on US over sanctions
(35 minutes later)
North Korea has vowed to bolster its nuclear arsenal and launch “thousands-fold” revenge against the US in response to tough UN sanctions imposed after its intercontinental ballistic missile launches. North Korea has vowed to exact “thousands-fold” revenge against the US after the UN imposed new sanctions in response to the regime’s recent tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Its warning came two days after the UN security council unanimously approved new sanctions to punish North Korea, including a ban on coal and other exports worth more than $1bn (£766m). Nikki Haley, America’s ambassador to the UN, called the US-drafted resolution the single largest economic sanctions package ever levelled against North Korea. Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, meanwhile, said Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes “pose a grave and growing direct threat” and vowed to apply “maximum pressure” on the regime.
In a statement carried by state media, the North Korean government said the sanctions were a “violent infringement of its sovereignty” and were caused by a “heinous US plot to isolate and stifle” the country. In a statement carried on Monday by the official KCNA news agency, North Korea said the UN security council sanctions passed at the weekend were a “violent violation of our sovereignty” and part of a “heinous plot to isolate and stifle” the country.
It said the UN sanctions would never force it to negotiate over its nuclear programme or to give up its efforts to strengthen its nuclear capability. North Korea said it would take “action of justice” but did not elaborate. Its threat to take “righteous action” came after the UN unanimously backed new sanctions that could slash the regime’s $3bn in annual export revenue by a third. The measures target key export revenue earners such as coal, iron, lead and seafood – but not oil.
North Korea test-launched two ICBMs last month as part of its efforts to develop a long-range missile capable of striking anywhere on the US mainland. Both missiles were fired at high angles and analysts say the weapons would be capable of reaching parts of the US if fired at a normal, flattened trajectory. Pyongyang described the sanctions as a “crime” for which the US would pay “thousands of times”.
The centrepiece of the UN sanctions is a ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron, lead and seafood products – and a ban on all countries importing these products, estimated to be worth more than $1bn in hard currency. The UN measures also forbid China, Russia and other countries from hiring any more North Korean labourers – whose remittances help fund the regime – prohibit joint ventures with the country and any new investment in existing business partnerships.
According to a UN security council diplomat, coal has been North Korea’s largest export, earning $1.2bn last year which was then restricted by the security council in November to a maximum $400m. This year, Pyongyang was estimated to earn $251m from iron and iron ore exports, $113m from lead and lead ore exports, and $295m from fish and seafood exports, the diplomat said. The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, described the measures as “the single largest economic sanctions package ever levelled” against North Korea.
The North Korean statement did not indicate what action it was considering in response to the UN move, but said additional sanctions would not force it into negotiations over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. “We will not put our self-defensive nuclear deterrent on the negotiating table … and will never take a single step back from strengthening our nuclear might,” it said.
Pressure on China – North Korea’s main ally and by far its biggest trading partner – to sign up to, and then enforce, more robust sanctions has mounted since the regime conducted two ICBM tests last month.
While many experts believe that Pyongyang is still some way off being able to mount a miniaturised nuclear warhead on a long-range missile, the regime now has missiles that, theoretically, are capable of striking the US mainland.
The KCNA alluded to North Korea’s new capability on Monday, saying: “There is no bigger mistake than the United States believing that its land is safe across the ocean.”
The White House said in a statement that Trump and Moon had agreed that advances in North Korean missile technology, achieved despite eight rounds of multilateral sanctions in the past 11 years, posed “a grave and growing direct threat to the United States, South Korea, and Japan, as well as to most countries around the world”.
In an hour-long phone call on Monday, the leaders said they would continue to apply pressure to the North. Joint US-South Korean military exercises this month are expected to provoke an angry response from the regime.
Moon, who supports cautious engagement with North Korea, told Trump that the door should remain open to dialogue, provided Pyongyang agree to abandon its nuclear programme, according to presidential office spokesman Park Su-hyun.
In a Twitter post, Trump said he was “very happy and impressed with 15-0 United Nations vote” on the sanctions, but China has warned that any punitive actions targeting North Korea must “avoid bringing disaster” to the economically fragile state.
In a front-page commentary on Monday, the overseas edition of the ruling Communist party’s official People’s Daily said sanctions must be employed with precision.
“Sanctions to the greatest possible extent must avoid causing negative impacts to ordinary people and to third countries, and avoid bringing disaster to the country in question’s normal and legal trade and business exchanges with the outside world, people’s normal lives and the humanitarian situation,” the paper said.
“A precision blow is the essential part of sanctions.”