North Korea will be unable to use “nuclear blackmail” as revenge on the UN’s latest sanctions, Dr Skinner said.
Pyongyang attempted to fight back after the United Nations Security Council imposed tough new sanctions on the hermit nation following its continued missile testing.
The resolution seeks to ban nearly 90 per cent of refined petroleum product exports to North Korea – a resolution which North Korea labelled an “act of war”.
Speaking to Fox News, Ms Skinner said: “North Korea is out of options in terms of retaliation because it attempts to play nuclear blackmail.
“The problem with using that type of lack of diplomacy, if you will, is that you have no other options below.
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“So, what can it do to the world but threaten some kind of nuclear manoeuvre that would immediately hurt the Chinese, of which it is attached to territorially.
“I think it’s just really rhetoric and desperation.”
In a statement responding to the sanctions, the North Korea foreign ministry said: “We define this ‘sanctions resolution’ rigged up by the US and its followers as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of our Republic, as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region and categorically reject the ‘resolution’.
“North Korea’s nuclear weapons are a self-defensive deterrence not in contradiction of international law.
“We will further consolidate our self-defensive nuclear deterrence aimed at fundamentally eradicating the US nuclear threats, blackmail and hostile moves by establishing the practical balance of force with the US.”
Following the UN vote, Donald Trump wrote on Twitter: “The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 in favour of additional Sanctions on North Korea. The World wants Peace, not Death!”
North Korea’s most recent missile test took place on November 29, and the regime said the Hwasong-15 missile flew 590 miles during its 53-minute flight before landing in the sea near Japan.
After the missile test Kim Jong-un declared that the North had “finally realised the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force”.
In response to the test, the US President has promised to “take care” of the situation in a huge warning to Kim Jong-un.