North Korea says its recent missile launch and other “self-defense” measures were a “gift package” to the United States. It warns other such gifts are on the way if Washington continues its “reckless provocations.”
“The recent self-defense measures by my country, the DPRK, are a gift package addressed to none other than the US,” Han Tae-song, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, said during an address to the UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday.
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“The US will receive more gift packages from my country as long as it relies on reckless provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the DPRK,” he continued.
Han’s statements come just two days after North Korea launched its sixth and most powerful missile test, with Pyongyang claiming the test involved a hydrogen bomb which can be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
“The H-bomb, the explosive power of which is adjustable from tens kiloton to hundreds kiloton, is a multi-functional thermonuclear nuke with great destructive power which can be detonated even at high altitudes for super-powerful EMP [Electromagnetic pulse] attack according to strategic goals,” state news agency KCNA reported.
The launch prompted US President Donald Trump – who has long vowed to “solve the problem” of North Korea – to threaten to cut commerce with countries doing business with Pyongyang.
The United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017
That suggestion was slammed by China, North Korea’s biggest trading partner, which called it “unacceptable” and “unfair.”
The US is also due to present a North Korean sanctions resolution at the UN, and is aiming for a vote to take place in a week, AFP reported on Monday.
Also on Monday, US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said it was time for the Security Council to impose “the strongest possible measures” on North Korea over its sixth and largest nuclear test, because “enough is enough.”
Haley said the sanctions approach towards Pyongyang since 2006 has not worked, and accused North Korean leader Kim Jong-un of “begging for war.”
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Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that sanctions will not dissuade North Korea, and that “ramping up military hysteria in such conditions is senseless; it’s a dead end.
“It could lead to a global, planetary catastrophe and a huge loss of human life. There is no other way to solve the North Korean nuclear issue, save that of peaceful dialogue.”
China, for its part, urged North Korea on Monday to “stop taking actions that are wrong, deteriorating the situation, and not in line with its own interests either and truly return to the track of resolving the issue through dialogue.”
It called on all parties to “seriously consider” the double-freeze plan proposed by China and Russia and “actively respond to it.”
The plan, which would see Pyongyang suspend its nuclear and missile tests in exchange for a halt in joint US-South Korean military drills, was previously rejected by Washington.
Han’s Tuesday comments aren’t the first time that North Korea has referred to its actions as a “gift” for the United States.
In July, Pyongyang also warned of more “gift packages,” after it launched a missile test on Independence Day in what it dubbed a “gift” for the “American bastards.”
