UNITED NATIONS The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution that dramatically expands existing U.N. sanctions on North Korea in response to its January 6 nuclear test, a measure largely negotiated by Washington and Beijing.
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China called for calm and restraint on Friday after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered his military to be ready to use its atomic weapons at any time.
Kim said the situation had become very risky following the adoption of the sanctions, which came just days ahead of joint military drills by the USA and South Korea.
South Korea’s defence ministry said on Thursday North Korea launched several projectiles off its coast into the sea up to 150 kilometres (90 miles) away, an apparent response to the United Nations sanctions.
Analysts don’t know how close North Korea is to having developed a nuclear warhead miniaturized enough to deliver on a long-range missile.
It comes after North Korea fired missiles towards Japan in an act of aggression that has infuriated the global community.
South Korean army K-1 tanks move during an annual exercise in Yeoncheon, near the border with North Korea, Thursday, March 3, 2016.
Those sanctions prohibit the sale of small arms and conventional weapons to North Korea and require all ships and aircraft to be subject to inspection before leaving and after entering the country.
“We will probably announce unilateral sanctions we have in mind in the relatively near future”, he said in an interview on local broadcaster YTN.
Power said that “part of the perverse reality that has no equal in this world” is that North Korea prioritizes its nuclear and ballistic missile programs over the basic needs of its people.
Kim criticized South Korean President Park Geun-hye in his first direct published mention of her by name for acting “in league with the USA scoundrels”, adding, “her hysteria will precipitate only her ruin in the long run”, KCNA said.
According to KCNA, the forces hostile to DPRK led by the United States have approved “an unprecedented and gangster-like” resolution imposing sanctions on the country, undermining its rights as a sovereign state. And North Korea already has years of experience in finding cracks in past sanctions and creative ways to get around them.
Pyongyang, in an official statement, said Friday that it would respond with “stern countermeasures” to the sanctions, which it said would include “powerful and ruthless physical actions”.
The Pentagon on Thursday meanwhile downplayed the risk from North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, after Kim Jong Un said the country’s nuclear weapons must be ready for pre-emptive use at “anytime”.
In another development that will anger the North, South Korean and USA officials were set to begin formal talks Friday on deploying a sophisticated US missile defence system in South Korea.
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It is required to transfer that information to the Justice Ministry, a step parliamentary officials say would provide legal grounds to punish rights violators in North Korea when the two Koreas eventually reunify.
