US sanctions will strengthen nuke ambition: North Korea

TIL Desk/World/Pyongyang/ North Korea has said that unilateral sanctions imposed by the US earlier this week in response to its latest intercontinental missile test will only strengthen Pyongyang’s resolve to fortify itself with nukes.

“The sanctions campaign by the US might work on other countries, but never with North Korea,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said late Thursday.

“The US trumpeting about war and threat to impose extreme sanctions on North Korea will only increase the latter’s vigilance and stamina, and provide further justification for it to access nukes,” the spokesperson added.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump ratified a new set of sanctions against entities or individuals trading with North Korea in crude oil and its products, coal, or rare earth metals, apart from those who employ North Korean labour abroad.

North Korea strongly condemns and rejects the so-called unilateral sanctions as an attempt by the US to “apply its federal law to international relations which constitutes a direct challenge to the UN Charter and international law”, the spokesperson said.

He added that the missile test was a warning to the US and accused countries, who abide by the sanctions, of fuelling tensions on the Korean peninsula. “Rather than wasting its energy on the hopeless sanctions racket against North Korea, the US should deliberate on ways to ensure its own internal security.”