North Korea conducted what it claimed to be a successful test of an H-bomb on January 6.
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Feb 20, 2016- North Korea fired several artillery rounds into the sea near a disputed maritime border with South Korea on Saturday, causing alarm among residents on a nearby island in the South, but the shells did not fly across the border, the South’s military said.
Rodong Sinmun, newspaper of the North’s ruling communist party, earlier today slammed the South’s conservative leader for seeking stronger sanctions against Pyongyang following its nuclear and missile tests.
North Korea called Park’s position traitorous and added that Washington’s newly enacted sanctions are “laughable”.
North Korea sparked global outrage with the launch of the Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite, which came just a month after its fourth nuclear test.
The latest derogatory diatribe was a response to a speech Park delivered to South Korea’s parliament Tuesday, warning that North Korea must either change its ways or face the collapse of its regime.
South Korea suspended the operation of a jointly run factory park in the North, closing what had been the last window of regular interaction born out of a summit meeting in 2000, when leaders pledged to work for peace and reconciliation.
“This only proves herself to be the worst imbecile and idiot unable to count even simple numbers”, it said.
In a separate report on Saturday, KCNA quoted an unnamed Foreign Ministry official as saying that despite the “laughable” US sanctions, the North will stick to its official policy of simultaneously developing nuclear weapons and its economy.
The new steps are among a set of punitive measures the government announced February 10 to cut flows of money, people and products to North Korea.
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Meanwhile, in another move that will likely stoke the tension with Pyongyang, South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo said Thursday that about 15,000 USA troops will take part in the annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises when they begin next month, which is twice the number from a year ago.
