However, the action by the Obama administration on Wednesday marked the first time Kim has been personally targeted, and also the first time that any North Korean official has been blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury in connection with reports of rights abuses.
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North Korea’s decision to adamantly pursue its nuclear programme, even in the face of strict United Nations sanctions, also led to U.S.’s decision to deploy an advanced missile defence system in South Korea.
KCNA also said Monday that the North had “notified the USA that it should take responsibility for disastrous events which could take place”.
“We came to this alliance decision because of North Korea’s continued belligerence and its ongoing pursuit of ballistic missile and WMD capabilities despite multiple condemnations by the global community”, Cmdr.
Otto Frederick Warmbier (C), a University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea since early January, is taken to North Korea’s top court in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo released by Kyodo March 16, 2016.
“The Republic will handle all matters arising between us and the United States from now on under our wartime laws, and the matters of Americans detained are no exception to this”.
The North’s military statement, carried in state media, came three days after Seoul and Washington said they were close to determining a location in South Korea for the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system to better deal with North Korean threats.
In an apparent protest the THAAD deployment decision, the North also test-launched a submarine-launched ballistic missile on Saturday, but the test ended in failure with the missile exploding at an altitude of some 10 kilometers after being launched from a submarine.
“We once again warn the enemies that it is the steadfast will of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) to make merciless retaliatory strikes to reduce South Korea to a sea of flames and debris once an order is issued”, the military’s artillery bureau was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
South Korean Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho downplayed the possibility that China, Seoul’s biggest trading partner, would retaliate economically over the THAAD decision. It also said its deployment could escalate tensions in the region.
South Korea has reiterated that THAAD is purely defensive in nature and will exclusively be used against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
North Korea also claimed that Seoul was “offering” the South as a “US nuclear outpost”.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday that THAAD exceeded the Korean peninsula’s security needs and suggested there was a “conspiracy behind this move”.
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Political parties have been divided over THAAD, with smaller parties expressing worries over negative fallout from its deployment and impact on Seoul’s relations with China and Russian Federation. The United States maintains 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war. The South Korean defense ministry is expected to announce the deployment site within a few weeks.
