North Korea slams 'Obama and his lackeys' in response to sanctions

Criticising UN sanctions imposed on it, North Korea has accused Security Council members of being puppets of the US.

North Korea's statement on Thursday came as both South Korea and Japan announced further restrictions on the communist nation, including on visits by foreign missile and nuclear experts, CNN reported.

The UNSC voted unanimously on November 30 to impose their "toughest" sanctions yet on North Korea, stopping about $800 million in exports including coal and copper.

The new restrictions came in response to North Korea's nuclear warhead test in September, its fifth and potentially most powerful yet.

North Korea in a statement said many countries that are members of the UNSC had already conducted their own nuclear tests and missile launches.

"Obama and his lackeys are sadly mistaken if they calculate that they can force North Korea to abandon its line of nuclear weaponisation and undermine its status as a nuclear power through base sanctions to pressurise it," it said.

South Korea said it would block entry to North Korea for all foreign missile and nuclear experts if their work threatened the South.

Senior North Korean officials will also be blacklisted as part of the new embargo, the South Korean statement said.

On Friday, the Japanese government confirmed they would adopt similar measures as South Korea, while also prohibiting entry to Japanese vessels that had docked in North Korea.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday said the government had decided to tighten sanctions due to North Korea's repeated nuclear tests and abduction of foreign nationals.

The UNSC already imposed one set of sanctions on North Korea in 2016, also in response to a nuclear test by the rogue state in January.

Wednesday's sanctions aimed to cut off North Korea's supply of cash to continue their missile programmes, cutting exports of coal, nonferrous metals and giant statues.

--IANS

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