N. Korea threatens pre-emptive nuclear attack against U.S.
Hours later, the U.N. responds to the nuclear threat, the first ever made against America by the nation, by voting to impose tougher sanctions.
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council approved new sanctions on Thursday against North Korea for its underground nuclear test last month, in a unanimous vote only hours after North Korea threatened for the first time to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States.
The North Korean leadership, which had warned the Security Council not to approve the sanctions, said it was responding to threats already made against it.
The North cited the U.S.-South Korean military exercises currently under way as evidence the allies were preparing for “a nuclear war aimed to mount a pre-emptive strike” on North Korea.
The tougher sanctions impose penalties on North Korean banking, travel and trade and were passed in a 15-0 vote that reflected the country’s increased international isolation.
China, the North’s longtime benefactor, helped the U.S. draft the sanctions resolution in what outside experts called a sign of Beijing’s growing annoyance with Pyongyang’s defiant behavior on the nuclear issue. The Chinese had urged the North Koreans not to proceed with the Feb. 12 underground nuclear test, their third.
Both China and the U.S. presented the new constraints as adding significant pressure on North Korea.
Whether it will change North Korea’s behavior is unknown.
“The strength, breadth and severity of these sanctions will raise the cost to North Korea of its illicit nuclear program and further constrain its ability to finance and source materials and technology for its ballistic missile, conventional and nuclear weapons programs,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, told reporters after the vote.
It remained unclear if China would be willing to go beyond the scope of the sanctions, cutting off fuel shipments and commercial trade that have in the past helped to keep the impoverished country functioning.
The resolution, which was drafted three weeks after the Feb. 12 underground test by North Korea, is the Security Council’s fourth against the reclusive government.
Rice dismissed the North’s vows of a preemptive nuclear strike, saying “North Korea will achieve nothing by continued threats and provocations.”
“I can tell you that the United States is fully capable of defending against any North Korean ballistic missile attack,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
In recent days, with the resolution set to pass, North Korea characterized the sanctions as part of an “act of war.”
Earlier this week, it declared the 1953 armistice that stopped the Korean War null and void as of next Monday and threatened to turn Washington and Seoul into “a sea in flames” with “lighter and smaller nukes.”