North Korea Accuses U.S. of Aggravating Tensions

Date: 27 January 2018 - 21:45

News ID: ۴۹۳۷۱

SEOUL (Dispatches) -- North Korea on Saturday condemned the latest U.S. sanctions announced this week over the country’s development of nuclear weapons which Pyongyang says are a deterrent against American aggression.
The U.S. sanctions are "a manifestation of heinous intention to throw a wet blanket over the inter-Korean exchange and cooperation and to aggravate the situation,” an unnamed North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said in a report by the Korean Central News Agency.
It also said the United States should stop such "anachronistic” policy towards North Korea.
The United States announced new sanctions on Wednesday aimed at stopping North Korea’s nuclear weapons development and urged China and Russia to expel North Koreans raising funds for the programs.
The U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on nine entities, 16 people and six North Korean ships it accused of helping the weapons programs. It said two China-based trading firms were involved in exporting millions of dollars worth of metals and other goods used in weapons production.
North Korea said the latest sanctions imposed are an attempt to sabotage a nascent process of dialog with South Korea.
North and South Koreas have recently started face-to-face negotiations in a fragile effort to defuse long-running tensions. Pyongyang initiated that dialogue, putting the U.S. which has always been relying on a policy of pressure on the North, in an awkward position.
Washington responded with confusion, both playing down the North Korean overture to start dialogue with the South and then coming up with the new sanctions.
On Friday, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said the breakthrough in talks between North and South Koreas must not become as a distraction from the aim of denuclearizing Pyongyang.
South Korea has welcomed the opening. South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said in an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that using military force to make North Korean stop its nuclear program was "unacceptable”.
Seoul is opposed to military action against its northern neighbor because that may subject South Korea to easy retribution by the North.