North Korean diplomats have issued a stern warning to America at a gathering of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, saying that Kim Jong-un’s regime will “make the U.S. suffer the greatest pain.”
During a series of inflammatory remarks Han Tae Song, Pyongyang’s emissary to the U.N. made it clear that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is “ready to use a form of ultimate means.” Mr. Song provided scant details as to what these “ultimate means’ are, but was emphatic in his condemnation of military action against the DPRK.
“The Washington regime fired up for political, economic, and military confrontation, [is] obsessed with the wild game of reversing the DPRK’s development of nuclear force which has already reached the completion phase.”
Ambassadors to the United Nations disarmament committee unanimously voted to impose new, even heavier sanctions on North Korea. The rebuke comes in the wake of Kim Jong-un’s defiance of international diplomatic calls to denuclearize, having, instead, conducted six nuclear weapon tests in the recent past.
North Korea’s latest weapons test was a successful detonation of a hydrogen bomb, with a devastating yield more powerful and destructive than both atom bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively, according to a report in the Independent .
New, tougher sanctions were sought by President Donald Trump’s administration in retaliation to North Korea’s persistent provocations. The new measures will halt the country’s natural gas liquid and condensate imports. Moreover, North Korea’s offshore government assets, as well as those of Kim Jong-un, will be frozen.
The export of textiles, one of the DPRK’s most lucrative commodities, is now prohibited, and North Korean citizens will be banned from acquiring work permits in any other countries.
According to Nikki Haley, an emissary for the U.S., “these are by far the strongest measures ever imposed on North Korea.” Nevertheless, Haley made a plea to the various nation states that are members of the U.N. security council to follow through on the resolutions that have been adopted.
“These steps only work if all nations implement them completely and aggressively,” said Haley. “Today we are saying the world will never accept a nuclear armed North Korea. We are done trying to prod the regime to do the right thing” and instead are taking steps to prevent it “from doing the wrong thing.”
Meanwhile, Robert Woods, a fellow member of the American envoy to the United Nations, is hoping for a positive result following the latest restrictions.
“My hope is the regime will hear the message loud and clear and it will choose a different path.”
Two of the world’s superpowers, China and Russia, who are also North Korean allies, decided to support a more meek version of the sanction that was proposed by President Trump and his team. Analysts have speculated that the move might be a signal to America that a U.S.-led regime change agenda in North Korea would not be tolerated.
Speaking on behalf of China’s foreign ministry, Geng Shuang stated that “the Chinese side will never allow conflict or war on the peninsula.”
[Featured Image by Lee Jin-man/AP Images]
