The UN Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Saturday aimed at pressuring Pyongyang to end its nuclear programme. The sanctions could slash North Korea’s $3 billion annual export revenue by a third.
North Korea responded robustly and in traditional fashion on Monday, saying the UN moves were unwarranted and unfair, and it was ready to teach the United States a “severe lesson” if it launched an attack.
The US-drafted resolution bans North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood following Pyongyang’s two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July.
It also prohibits countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean labourers working abroad, bans new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.
North Korea denounced the sanctions, saying they infringed on its sovereignty, and vowed to take “righteous action”, according to the North’s official news agency.
In a statement to a regional security meeting in Manila on Monday, Pyongyang said it would never place its nuclear programme on the negotiating table as long as the United States maintained a hostile policy against the North.
In a transcript of a statement by Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, which was distributed to media in Manila, Pyongyang called the new UN sanctions “fabricated”, and warned there would be “strong follow-up measures”.
It said its intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month proved that the entire United States was in its firing range, and those missiles were a legitimate means of self-defence.
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