N.Korean media urge US to withdraw sanctions

North Korean state media on Monday urged the US to remove sanctions after Washington threatened to retain the punitive measures on Pyongyang for failing to act on its commitments to denuclearize.

The White House has accused North Korea of being "inconsistent" with regard to its promise to abandon its nuclear weapons programmes and said it would continue to maintain diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea.

North Korean state media accused Washington of acting in a manner contrary to what was agreed upon at the historic summit in June in Singapore, despite goodwill gestures by the regime such as the dismantling of its nuclear facilities and the repatriation of the remains of US soldiers killed in the Korean War, Efe reported.

The US sanctions have "only helped the DPRK gain the status of a nuclear power and enhanced its self-development capability," Rodong Sinmun, the official state newspaper of the North Korean ruling party, said in an editorial on Monday.

The government of US President Donald Trump is "going back to the past, clinging to the strategy for sanctions and pressure which the successive administrations had insisted on for more than half century but in vain", the article added.

"If they are obsessed with the monarchical way of thinking that they can enforce their demands without any fulfilment of their commitments and promises made with their dialogue partner and the conception that 'sanctions' can work on everything, they will never achieve what they want," warned the article.

It also urged the US to "attach importance to the trust and respect" to ensure that the dialogue process bears fruit.

The White House has said it intends to maintain diplomatic and financial pressure on North Korea after a confidential report by the United Nations said Pyongyang was continuing to develop its nuclear and missile programmes.

At the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore over the weekend, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the actions of the North Korean regime to continue building long-range missiles were "inconsistent" with its promise to dismantle its nuclear weapons and violated UN Security Council resolutions.

--IANS

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