NK says US ‘hell-bent’ on sanctions despite Trump-Kim meeting

NORTH Korea complained on Wednesday after the US sent a letter urging countries to send back North Korean workers as President Donald Trump was inviting Kim Jong-un to hold ta lks.

The North Korean mission to t he UN said t he letter sent to a ll UN memberstates showed that the US is “practica lly more and more hell-bent on t he hostile acts” against North Korea, even though it is seek ing dia log ue.

The mission said t he letter from the US, a long with Brita in, France and Germany, was sent on June 29, the day Trump tweeted that he would like to shake Kim’s hand and say hello during his v isit to t he demilitarised zone on the Korean peninsula.

Trump met with Kim on Sunday, becoming t he first US president to step onto North Korean soil at the demilitarised zone. He said t he t wo leaders agreed to start working-level ta lks on a denuclearisation deal, ending a sta ndstil l.

“What can’t be overlooked is t he fact t hat t his joint letter game was carried out by the permanent mission of the US to the UN under the instruction of t he State Department, on the ver y same day when President Trump proposed [for] the summit meeting,” said a press statement from the North Korean mission.

The US letter was in fact sent on June 27 and called on all countries to apply sanctions provisions that call for the return of all North Korean workers by the end of 2019.

UN experts estimate that tens of thousands of North Koreans are sent abroad ever y year, mostly to China and Russia, working in slavelike conditions to generate hard currency revenue for Pyong yang.

“We do not t hirst for l i f ting of sanctions,” t he North Korean mission said, adding t hat it was “quite ridiculous” for the US to consider sanctions as a “panacea for a ll problems”.

UN sanctions resolutions have banned all new contracts with North Korean workers and states all countries with existing workers will send them back by the end of 2019.

The UN Security Council has adopted a series of sanctions in response to the North’s ballistic missile and nuclear tests.

In the letter, the four countries noted that only 34 countries had filed reports to the UN on whether action was taken to send North Korean workers back.

The final deadline for repatriating North Korean workers is December 22, according to the letter.