North Korea calls UN sanctions on shipping ‘inexcusable’

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA >> Searches of North Korean ships under new U.N. sanctions that were imposed in response to Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test are inexcusable and North Korea won’t tolerate them, a North Korean maritime official said in an interview with Associated Press Television News.

Some of the toughest measures in the sanctions target North Korea’s shipping network, which has long been under international scrutiny for the possible movement of weapons and other equipment banned by previous U.N. resolutions.

“The U.N. Security Council should ensure the peace and security of the world, but it has abandoned its own mission and duty and it’s violently trampled on international justice and impartiality,” Nam Hyon Il, of North Korea’s Maritime Administration, which oversees the country’s shipping industry, said in an interview with APTN in Pyongyang on Thursday.

Nam called the sanctions “an infringement of maritime trade activities of a sovereign state, which is inexcusable.” North Korea insists it will not accept any of the U.N. sanctions against it, including the latest round of restrictions announced in response to its nuclear test in January and subsequent rocket launch.