Defiant North Korea rejects talks, says to continue to develop nuke weapons

An angry and peeved North Korea has rejected the imposition of tough new United Nations sanctions and also said that it will continue to develop its nuclear arsenal. It also said that there shall be no talks with any country so long as the country is being threatened by the United States.

Pyongyang said in a statement carried by its official Korea Central News Agency that the UN sanctions were a “violent violation of our sovereignty”.

The message of defiance was the first major response to the US-drafted sanctions that the UN Security Council unanimously approved over the weekend that could cost North Korea USD one billion a year while restricting crucial economic links with China.

North Korea threatened to make the US “pay the price for its crime... thousands of times”.

The statement came as North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-Ho was in the Philippine capital of Manila for a security forum with top diplomats from the US, China, Russia and other Asia-Pacific nations.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday ruled out a quick return to dialogue with North Korea, saying the new sanctions showed the world had run out of patience with Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons ambitions.

Speaking to reporters at the forum, Tillerson said Washington would only consider talks if Pyongyang halted its ballistic missile programme.

The UN sanctions were in response to the North conducting its first two intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month that Kim boasted showed he could strike any part of the US.