Ja Song Nam, Pyongyang’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Washington’s campaign to get countries to implement “illegal and unjustifiable” sanctions on North Korea was part of a “frantic attempt to completely block our peaceful economy for people’s everyday lives and humanitarian cooperation”.
He told a General Assembly committee: “The US is clinging to unprecedented nuclear threats and blackmail, economic sanctions and blockade to deny our rights to existence and development, but they only result in our sharper vigilance and greater courage.”
The UN Security Council has imposed its toughest sanctions yet on North Korea to pressurise Kim’s government into reigning in its nuclear ambitions and returning to the negotiating table.
The measures include a ban on countries importing North Korean coal, iron ore and textiles and new limits on its crucial oil and petroleum product imports.
But the economic pressure has had no visible impact on Kim’s government, which appears to be accelerating toward what it says is its goal — putting the US within range of its nuclear weapons.
A week ago, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told reporters Donald Trump had “declared the war on our country” by tweeting that North Korea’s leadership “won’t be around much longer”.
The Trump administration, referring to the tweet, stressed the US is not seeking to overthrow Pyongyang.
Cabinet officials, particularly Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have insisted that the US-led campaign of diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea is focused on eliminating its nuclear weapons program, not its totalitarian government.
North Korea’s ambassador told the assembly committee “our people will continue to uphold the line of simultaneous development of the state nuclear force and the economy”.
He said the country is committed to implementing UN goals to end poverty and preserve the environment by 2030 and said Mr Trump’s intention to withdraw the US from the 2015 Paris climate change agreement “illustrates the negative stand of the US towards the sustainable development goals”.
Ja said: “To achieve these goals we should immediately obliterate the high-handed measures of the US, including the sanctions imposed on the developing countries.”
He said the “monopolistic position” of countries that control the monetary and trade system should be destroyed at the same time.