Published : Dec. 24, 2017 - 13:40
North Korea on Sunday rejected the latest U.N. sanctions resolution on its intercontinental ballistic missile launch, threatening to further strengthen its “self-defensive” nuclear deterrence.
The U.N. Security Council on Friday unanimously passed the toughened sanctions, including further restrictions on its imports of oil.
(Yonhap)
The foreign ministry said in a spokesman‘s statement that the sanctions resolution is a grave infringement upon its sovereignty and an act of war violating peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and the region.
“The United States, completely terrified at our accomplishment of the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force, is getting more and more frenzied in the moves to impose the harshest-ever sanctions and pressure on our country,” said the statement carried by the North’s official news agency KCNA.
It repeated its nuclear weapons are self-defensive deterrence against nuclear threats and blackmail of the U.S.
“If the U.S. wishes to live safely, it must abandon its hostile policy towards the DPRK and learn to co-exist with the country that has nuclear weapons and should wake up from its pipe dream of our country giving up nuclear weapons which we have developed and completed through all kinds of hardships,” it said.
“We will further consolidate our self-defensive nuclear deterrence aimed at fundamentally eradicating the U.S. nuclear threats, blackmail and hostile moves by establishing the practical balance of force with the U.S.,” the statement added.
Condemning the North‘s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Nov. 29, the 15-member U.N. Security Council slapped the regime with caps on its imports of refined and crude oil, and blocked key sources of revenue suspected of funding the weapons programs.
The U.S.-drafted resolution seeks to slash refined petroleum product exports to North Korea by 89 percent. The council imposed an annual cap of 2 million barrels in September, and the new resolution calls for a further reduction to 500,000 barrels.
It also requires U.N. member states to expel North Korean overseas workers within 24 months. The workers’ income is believed to be extorted by the Pyongyang regime to fund its weapons development. (Yonhap)