North Korea censures 'fabrication' of new United Nations Security Council sanctions

The UN Security Council meets to discuss North Korea on December 22, 2017, at the UN Headquarters in New York City. (Photo by AFP)

North Korea has denounced the latest round of sanctions approved by the UN against Pyongyang, saying the punitive measures are another example of "state-sponsored terrorism" committed by the United States.

A spokesman for the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, an affiliate of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, said in a statement on Monday that the United States had committed another “state-sponsored terrorism” by coercing the 15-member UN Security Council to pass anti-Pyongyang measures.

The spokesman accused the US of threatening and appeasing the Security Council member states for over 20 days before Resolution 2397 was passed on December 23.

“The fabrication of another sanctions resolution proves once again that the brigandish US imperialists are the sworn enemies of the Korean nation with whom we can no longer live together and principal enemies with whom we have to settle final accounts,” he added.

The spokesman said Washington's pressure can trigger a nuclear war across the Korean Peninsula and beyond. “It is common sense that escalating sanctions and pressure on the Korean Peninsula, arsenal in Far East, would heat up the nuclear detonator.”

“The US should imagine what a catastrophic consequence it will face for whatever it takes against the world-level nuclear power DPRK, whether it is the sanctions resolution or military attack, before going wild,” the statement said, using an acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

“Despite barbarous sanctions resolutions which the US cooked up on nine occasions with the mobilization of every possible means and method, the DPRK kept to the path of nuclear possession for self-defense and finally realized the historic cause of completing the state nuclear force. It would be a great mistake to think that the 10th sanctions resolution would browbeaten the DPRK.”

“No one can ever check the dynamic advance of the army and people of the DPRK toward further bolstering the state nuclear force under the uplifted great banner of simultaneous development of the two fronts, defying the sanctions and pressure racket.”

The photo taken on July 29, 2017 shows people watching as the coverage of an ICBM missile test is displayed on a screen in a public square in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Photo by AFP)

The UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Friday over Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear weapons development program. The new sanctions restrict fuel exports to the country and demand the repatriation of North Koreans working aboard, mostly in China and Russia.

On December 24, North Korea said the latest round of sanctions imposed by the United Nations against Pyongyang constitutes an “act of war” against the country.

Pyongyang has repeatedly defended its weapons program as being defensive in nature and a deterrent against potential hostility by foreign powers.

North Korea on November 29 said it had successfully tested a new missile that put the US mainland within range of its nuclear weapons. That same month, Pyongyang also demanded a halt to what it called “brutal” sanctions, saying a round imposed after its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on September 3 constituted genocide.