North Korea denounces new UN sanctions

By Jun Ji-hye

North Korea denounced new sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), Wednesday, saying it "condemns in the strongest terms and categorically rejects" the new resolution.

The North's foreign ministry said in a statement that the harsher-than-ever set of sanctions on Pyongyang were a "heinous provocation aimed at depriving the DPRK of its legitimate right for self-defense and completely suffocating its state and people through a full-scale economic blockade," according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

The statement also claimed the resolution was "fabricated by the U.S. employing all sorts of despicable and vicious means and methods."

On Monday, the UNSC unanimously approved the new resolution, eight days after the North's sixth nuclear test, representing a swift response by the international community to Pyongyang's latest provocation.

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After the test, the Kim Jong-un regime claimed that it successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb capable of being mounted on its intercontinental ballistic missiles that can hit targets on the U.S. mainland.

"The adoption of another illegal and evil resolution on sanctions piloted by the U.S. served as an occasion for the DPRK to verify that the road it chose to go down was absolutely right and to strengthen its resolve to follow this road at a faster pace without the slightest diversion until this fight to the finish is over," the statement said.

"The DPRK will redouble the efforts to increase its strength to safeguard the country's sovereignty and right to existence and to preserve peace and security of the region by establishing the practical equilibrium with the U.S.," it added.

The new sanctions targeted oil supplies to the North for the first time, capping imports of crude oil at the level of the last 12 months and limiting the imports of refined petroleum products to 2 million barrels a year.

Officials here estimate that the measure would reduce oil products provided to the North by 30 percent.

Military authorities are paying keen attention on the possibility for the repressive state to carry out additional military provocations to protest the new sanctions.

They said the North could choose the founding anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party, which falls Oct. 10, to conduct such a provocation.