N. Korea warns of harsh response to new sanctions

TOKYO — North Korea asserted it will make the United States pay a heavy price if a plan Washington is backing to impose the toughest sanctions ever on Pyongyang is approved by the U.N. Security Council.

The North’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement Monday saying it is watching the United States’ moves and threatened it is “ready and willing” to respond with its own moves.

The United States has called for a vote Monday on new U.N. sanctions against North Korea.

Last Tuesday, the U.S. circulated a draft resolution proposing the toughest-ever U.N. sanctions on North Korea, including a ban on all oil and natural gas exports to the country and a freeze on all foreign financial assets of the government and its leader, Kim Jong Un.

Security Council diplomats, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly because talks have been private, said the U.S. and China were still negotiating the text late Sunday.

Previous U.N. sanctions resolutions have been negotiated between the United States and China and have taken weeks or months. But the Trump administration is demanding a vote in six days.

“The U.S. is trying to use the DPRK’S legitimate self-defensive measures as an excuse to strangle and completely suffocate it,” the statement said, using the acronym for North Korea’s formal name. “Since the U.S. is revealing its nature as a bloodthirsty beast obsessed with the wild dream of reversing the DPRK’S development of the state nuclear force which has already reached the completion phase, there is no way that the DPRK is going to wait and let the U.S. feast on it.”

North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test a week ago.