North Korea
slammed fresh UN sanctions imposed over its missile tests as an “act of war” on
Sunday, its first response to the latest diplomatic move to punish Pyongyang’s
ever-accelerating weapons drive.
Tension has
been high on the flashpoint peninsula as the isolated but nuclear-armed regime
has staged a series of atomic and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)
tests — most recently on November 29.
The latest
launch of the Hwasong-15 ICBM, seen capable of hitting all major US cities,
further heightened global alarm over the rapid advance in the country’s weapons
technology.
“We fully
reject the latest UN sanctions… as a violent breach of our republic’s
sovereignty and an act of war that destroys the peace and stability of the
Korean peninsula and a wider region,” Pyongyang’s foreign ministry said in a
statement carried by the state-run KCNA news agency.
Pyongyang’s
bellicose reply came a day after the UN Security Council unanimously passed
new, US-drafted sanctions that will restrict oil supplies vital for the
impoverished state.
The third
raft of sanctions imposed on the North this year, sparked by last month’s ICBM
test, also received the backing of China — the North’s sole major ally and
economic lifeline.
The
sanctions also order the repatriation of North Korean workers sent abroad to
earn much needed revenue for Kim Jong-Un’s regime.
The
country’s weapons programmes have made significant progress since Kim took
power in 2011.
– Sanctions
‘toothless’ –
The North
has defended its missile and nuclear weapons programmes as measures for
self-defense against “hostile” US policies towards Pyongyang.
And a
defiant Pyongyang vowed on Sunday that the country would continue its weapons
push “more vigorously” to “form a balance of power with the US”.
“If you
think that those toothless ‘sanctions’ could stop the victorious march of our
people who have… achieved the historic goal of building the national nuclear
weapons, there would not be a bigger mistake than that,” the foreign ministry
said.
“The US and
its puppet followers should never forget the newly-upgraded status of our
nation as a nation that could pose a real nuclear threat to the US mainland,”
it added.
The North
claimed last month that its ICBM could deliver a “super-large heavy (nuclear)
warhead” to anywhere in the US mainland.
But experts
believe that Pyongyang has yet to develop the advanced technology to allow its
rockets to survive re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere.
The latest
UN sanctions were hailed by US President Donald Trump, who tweeted, “The World
wants peace, not Death!”
Trump and
Kim have traded threats of war and personal insults against each other in
recent months, prompting fears of another conflict on the peninsula once
devastated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
The
resolution bans the supply of nearly 75 percent of refined oil products to the
North, puts a cap on crude deliveries and orders all North Koreans working
abroad to be sent back by the end of 2019.
It also bans
sales of all industrial machinery, trucks, iron, steel and other metals to the
North and added 15 Pyongyang officials to the UN sanctions blacklist for global
visa ban and assets freeze.
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