Kim: I’ll punish you!
North Korea on Sunday ripped the latest round of UN sanctions against it as an “act of war” — and vowed that the countries that voted in favor of the measure would “pay a heavy price.”
“We define this ‘sanctions resolution’ rigged up by the US and its followers as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of our republic, as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the region and categorically reject the ‘resolution,’ ” Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement delivered on state-run media.
“There is no more fatal blunder than the miscalculation that the US and its followers could check by already wornout ‘sanctions’ the victorious advance of our people who have brilliantly accomplished the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force,” the statement said.
The 15 members of the UN Security Council unanimously voted on Friday to impose new sanctions on despot Kim Jong-un’s government following its testing of a ballistic missile last month.
The sanctions severely restrict the reclusive country’s access to petroleum products and order North Koreans working abroad to return home within 24 months.
Pyongyang said those that voted for the sanctions would face its wrath.
“Those countries that raised their hands in favor of this ‘sanctions resolution’ shall be held completely responsible for all the consequences to be caused by the ‘resolution’ and we will make sure forever and ever that they pay heavy price for what they have done,” the Foreign Ministry said in the statement.
It also insisted the country’s atomic-weapons program was meant only for self-defense and reminded global powers that it now has nuclear capability.
“We will further consolidate our self-defensive nuclear deterrence aimed at fundamentally eradicating the US nuclear threats, blackmail and hostile moves by establishing the practical balance of force with the US,” the statement said.
“The US should not forget even a second the entity of the DPRK which rapidly emerged as a strategic state capable of posing a substantial nuclear threat to the US mainland,” it added, using the initials for country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
In November, Kim an- nounced that his government succeeded in developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that could strike “all the US mainland.”
Sunday’s statement also said the US should “wake up from its pipe dream of our country giving up nuclear weapons.”
The Trump administration didn’t comment on the statement Sunday. But on Friday, President Trump praised the new UN sanctions on Twitter.
“The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 in favor of additional Sanctions on North Korea,” he tweeted. “The World wants Peace, not Death!”