Pyongyang says it is the time to “annihilate” the US and turn it into “ashes” for initiating the latest round of sanctions. The North has also threatened Washington’s allies in the region, vowing to “sink” Japan and “wipe out” South Korea
North Korea made yet another threat to the US and its allies in the region, Japan and South Korea, on Wednesday, KCNA reported. The North accused the US of “cooking up” the latest restrictive measures against it and demanded that the US be beaten “to death as a stick is fit for a rabid dog.”
The 15-member United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously approved a new round of sanctions on Monday, targeting North Korea’s textile exports and oil imports following Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test.
“There's limit to patience,” the North’s state-run KCNA state news agency cited the spokesperson of the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee as saying on Thursday. He accused the whole UN body of being a “tool of evil”serving Washington interests.
“Now is the time to annihilate the US imperialist aggressors. Let's reduce the US mainland into ashes and darkness,” the communist outlet reported, also vowing to resort to “all retaliation means which have been prepared till now.”
Pyongyang says that the previous intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) flight over Japanese territory has not brought Tokyo to its senses, and it continues “to dance to the tune of the US sanctions."
“The four islands of the [Japanese] archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche. Japan is no longer needed to exist near us,” KCNA stated. Juche is the official state ideology of North Korea, which was designed by the grandfather of Kim Jong-un, President Kim Il-sung, and emphasizes national self-reliance and independence.
Tokyo blasted the North Korean statement as “extremely provocative and egregious.”
“It is something that markedly heightens regional tension and is absolutely unacceptable,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga stated on Thursday, as cited by Reuters.
“The group of pro-American traitors should be severely punished and wiped out with fire attack so that they could no longer survive. Only then, the entire Korean nation can thrive in a reunified territory to be proud of in the world.”At the same time, North Korea sees its southern neighbor’s support of sanctions as “treason” against “fellow countrymen” and promised to wipe “traitors and dogs of the US” out for the sake of reunification.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are rapidly mounting with North Korea continuing its missile and nuclear tests and the US, South Korean and Japanese holding drills in the area. Pyongyang says the boosting of its missile and nuclear program is justified with defense from military maneuvers.
Moscow has repeatedly warned against the escalation of the Korean crisis and advocated a diplomatic solution. Together with China, Russia has repeatedly proposed a double-freeze plan, calling for the simultaneous suspension of Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests and a halt in joint US-South Korea military exercises.
Despite the plan being rejected by Washington, some of the Russian and Chinese concerns were included in the recent UNSC resolution. However, Russia doubts that sanctions are an effective tool to influence Pyongyang. US President Donald Trump has characterized the sanctions as “a small step,”which “are nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen.”
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