North Korea said sanctions imposed by the United Nations last week are an “act of war” and has vowed to bolster its nuclear force in an outright rejection of the resolution.
“We define this ‘sanctions resolution’ rigged by the U.S. and its followers as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of our Republic and as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the region,” North Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement on state media Sunday.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously Friday to impose new sanctions on North Korea over its missile tests. It was the third time this year that the council had placed sanctions on North Korea, this time further squeezing its oil imports and demanding that other countries repatriate North Korean guest workers within two years.
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The sanctions are the latest effort to get the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to negotiate and eventually abandon development of nuclear weapons. The previous round of sanctions, imposed in mid-September, was followed by more than two months of calm. That was shattered by a Nov. 29 test of what Pyongyang called its most powerful intercontinental missile ever.
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council that the most recent test was “another attempt by the Kim regime to masquerade as a great power while their people starve and their soldiers defect.”
North Korea has said the latest sanctions are tantamount to a complete economic blockade, according to Reuters.
“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.,” North Korea’s foreign ministry said Sunday.