North Korea threatened to rain down destruction on the U.S. if the United Nations imposes new sanctions on the regime.
In the wake of North Korea’s recent intercontinental ballistic missile test, the U.S. has been pushing for tougher sanctions on the regime. “We’re going to go ahead and push for a strong resolution against North Korea,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley told CBS News Sunday.
The North Korean foreign ministry threatened Friday to take “corresponding measures” if the U.N. Security Council adopts a new punitive resolution.
“Should the UNSC adopt another ‘resolution on sanctions,’ this will trigger corresponding measures by the DPRK and (the North will) respond to the ‘resolution’ with its act of justice,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) wrote, quoting a foreign ministry spokesman.
The successful launch of a North Korean ICBM “has fully demonstrated the will and capability of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) to annihilate the U.S. in a single blow to the very heart of its mainland in case it fails to act with discretion,” the report warned.
“It is time for the U.S. to renew its perspective on the DPRK’s strategic position which has reached dazzling heights,” KCNA wrote. “It is inviting its ultimate doom by resorting to the sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK.”
“It will be a fatal mistake to consider any chance that the DPRK which rose to a dignified nuclear power and an ICBM state would tolerate the reckless ‘sanctions’ racket of the U.S. and other hostile forces,” the state-run outlet concluded.
North Korea successfully tested the Hwasong-14 on July 4, shocking the world with technology believed to still be a few years away. The North claims that the weapon can carry a nuclear payload and that they have mastered the skills needed to miniaturize a nuclear bomb for the development of nuclear warheads. At this time, North Korea has yet to demonstrate these capabilities, but observers suspect that North Korea likely has these abilities.
The exact range of the new ICBM is unknown. While North Korea claimed that it could strike anywhere in the world, most experts initially assessed the range to be somewhere around 4,000 miles, which would put Alaska within firing range. Additional analysis revealed that North Korea’s new missile could have a range as high as 6,000 miles, putting West Coast cities in jeopardy.
North Korea now appears to assess that the balance of power is shifting in its favor, giving it new leverage in international debates and discussions.
The Trump administration is stepping up pressure on the regime’s overseas trade and procurement networks in an effort to increase financial pressure on Pyongyang to hinder its ability to develop weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them to distant targets.
The Department of the Treasury has already sanctioned a Chinese bank, the first time the U.S. has done so in over a decade, and there may be plans for additional sanctions on Chinese firms in the very near future. Furthermore, the U.S. is putting pressure on other countries that have failed to uphold international restrictions on cooperation with North Korea, and several congressmen have introduced legislation to ban cooperation with North Korea in all areas.
While Pyongyang seems to believe it has tilted the situation in its favor, the U.S. has shown no signs that it is back down. The U.S., using all elements of America’s comprehensive national power, still has options to rein in North Korea.
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