N Korea: US will 'suffer greatest pain' over sanctions
North Korea has said the US will "suffer the greatest pain" over its role in the imposition of the latest sanctions on the country.
His comments come after the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a US-draft resolution slapping new sanctions on North Korea.
"The forthcoming measures ... will make the US suffer the greatest pain it ever experienced in its history," Han Tae Song, North Korea's ambassador to the UN, said on Tuesday.
The resolution is a water-down version of the original US proposal, but it does ban North Korea
from importing all natural-gas liquids and condensates, as well as bans
all textile exports and prohibits all countries from authorising new
work permits for North Korean workers.
Han rejected the resolution as "illegal and unlawful" and
said the US was "fired up for political, economic, and military
confrontation".
North Korea is "ready to use a form of ultimate means", Han said.
On Wednesday, North Korea also called the sanctions a
"heinous provocation aimed at depriving the DPRK of its legitimate right
for self-defence and completely suffocating its state and people
through full-scale economic blockade," according to a statement from the
state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
DPRK stands for North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Monday's text is the ninth resolution unanimously adopted by
the 15-member council since 2006 over North Korea's ballistic missile
and nuclear programme.
It came in response to Pyongyang's sixth and largest nuclear test on September 3, which it said was of an advanced hydrogen bomb.
'Very small step'
For his part, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the
latest UN sanctions on North Korea were only a very small step and
nothing compared to what would have to happen to deal with the country's
nuclear programme.
"We think it's just another very small step, not a big
deal," Trump said at the start of a meeting with Malaysian Prime
Minister Najib Razak.
"I don't know if it has any impact, but certainly it was
nice to get a 15-to-nothing vote, but those sanctions are nothing
compared to what ultimately will have to happen."
Trump has pledged not to allow North Korea to develop a nuclear missile capable of hitting the US.
The initial US proposal included an assets freeze on North
Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a complete ban on countries selling oil to
his government, but the measures were softened to appease China and Russia.
Steven Mnuchin, US treasury secretary, gave warning to China that if it did not follow through on the new sanctions, the US would "put additional sanctions on them and prevent them from accessing the US and international dollar system".
Another senior administration official told Reuters news
agency that any such "secondary sanctions" on Chinese banks and other
companies were on hold for now to give China time to show it was
prepared to fully enforce the latest and previous rounds of sanctions.
Frustrated US legislators called at a House hearing on
Tuesday for a "supercharged" response to North Korea's nuclear and
missile tests and said the US should act alone if necessary to stiffen
sanctions on China firms and any country doing business with North
Korea.
Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the US House Foreign
Affairs Committee, said time was running out and Chinese firms should be
given "a choice between doing business with North Korea or the United
States".
Marshall Billingslea, US assistant treasury secretary, acknowledged
at the hearing he had not seen sufficient evidence past sanctions were
effective, but defended the administration's strategy.
He called on anyone aware of efforts to enable North Korean
trade to come forward before getting caught, warning: "We are closing in
on North Korea's trade representatives."
China's official Xinhua news agency said in a
commentary that the Trump administration was making a mistake by
rejecting diplomatic engagement with North Korea.
"The US needs to switch from isolation to communication in
order to end an 'endless loop' on the Korean Peninsula, where "nuclear
and missile tests trigger tougher sanctions and tougher sanctions invite
further tests," it said.
Liu Jieyi, China's UN ambassador, called on
North Korea to "take seriously the expectations and will of the
international community" that it halt its nuclear and ballistic missile
development, and called on all parties to remain "cool-headed" and not
stoke tensions.
Liu said relevant parties should resume negotiations "sooner rather than later".
To kick-start talks, China and Russia have proposed a dual
suspension of North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile testing, as
well as US and South Korean military exercises.
The US has called the proposal insulting.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
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