{"id":749526,"date":"2022-01-14T12:48:54","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T12:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/14\/north-korea-warns-of-stronger-reaction-after-new-u-s-sanctions\/"},"modified":"2022-01-14T12:48:54","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T12:48:54","slug":"north-korea-warns-of-stronger-reaction-after-new-u-s-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/14\/north-korea-warns-of-stronger-reaction-after-new-u-s-sanctions\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea warns of \u2018stronger\u2019 reaction after new U.S. sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

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North Korea’s foreign ministry on Friday condemned sanctions by the United States over its recent missile tests and warned of “stronger” reactions to come. Photo by KCNA\/UPI | License Photo<\/div>\n
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SEOUL, Jan. 13 (UPI) —<\/span> North Korea spoke out Friday against new sanctions imposed by the United States in the wake of a pair of missile tests, calling the moves a “provocation” and warning of a “stronger and certain reaction” if Washington keeps its “confrontational stance.”<\/p>\n

In a statement by its foreign ministry, North Korea justified the recent launches of what it claims are hypersonic weapons as a “legitimate exercise of its right to self-defense.”\n<\/p>\n<\/article>\n

The testing “did not target any specific country or force and it did not do any harm to the security of neighboring countries,” the statement, which was carried in state-run Korean Central News Agency, said.<\/p>\n

“Nevertheless, the U.S. is intentionally escalating the situation,” the statement continued, calling the new sanctions “an evident provocation and a gangster-like logic.”\n<\/p>\n

North Korea fired ballistic missiles into the sea between Korea and Japan on Jan. 5 and again on Tuesday in what the secretive state said was the final verification of a new hypersonic weapon system.<\/p>\n

In response, the United States sanctioned five North Koreans living in China and Russia Wednesday for their involvement in procuring goods for the country’s missile programs.\n<\/p>\n

Washington is also calling for additional United Nations sanctions<\/a> over all six of North Korea’s ballistic missile launches since September 2021, each of which was in violation of existing U.N. Security Council resolutions.\n<\/p>\n

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that Tuesday’s missile reached a speed of Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound, although the full capabilities of the new North Korean weapon remain unclear.<\/p>\n

Hypersonic missiles are highly maneuverable and pose a daunting challenge to existing defense systems, but the JCS said the South Korean military “has the ability to detect and intercept this projectile.”<\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday called the recent launches “profoundly destabilizing” and said Pyongyang has not responded to Washington’s overtures to resume dialogue.\n<\/p>\n

“Some months ago, we made clear that we were prepared to engage the North Koreans, to sit down with no preconditions, to see if we could find a way forward with them at the table toward the total denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Blinken said.<\/p>\n

Nuclear negotiations have been at a standstill since a February 2019 summit between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended without an agreement.\n<\/p>\n

North Korea claimed Friday that the Biden administration “is trumpeting about diplomacy and dialogue,” but remains “engrossed in its policy for isolating and stifling the DPRK.”<\/p>\n

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.<\/p>\n

“If the U.S. adopts such a confrontational stance, the DPRK will be forced to take stronger and certain reaction to it,” the statement said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n