North threatens retaliation against U.S. plans for new sanctions monitoring

In this footage broadcast by Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central Television on Tuesday, four short-range ballistic missiles are fired from super-large multiple rocket launchers during a tactical drill held the previous day to simulate a nuclear counterattack by the North. [YONHAP]

North Korea said Thursday it could mount a “powerful” response to U.S. efforts to create a new mechanism to monitor and enforce sanctions against the regime.

In a statement carried by the North’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim Un-chol, vice minister for U.S. affairs at Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry, said that the North would “carry out an upward readjustment of its forces” if the United States introduces new sanctions.

Washington has vowed to work with Seoul and other countries to establish alternative ways to monitor sanctions compliance in the place of a panel of experts that currently advises the United Nations Security Council.

The panel’s mandate is due to expire at the end of April after Russia vetoed its extension last month amid growing military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang.

In the KCNA report, Kim suggested that new sanctions could lead to Pyongyang carrying out more weapons tests.

“Whenever the United States cooked up a new sanctions resolution at the United Nations, it triggered a more powerful and advanced nuclear test by the DPRK,” Kim said, referring to the North by the acronym for its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry official also said Pyongyang would likely take “more powerful practical actions” to bolster its military technical strength in response to heightened sanctions enforcements by Washington and other countries.

On Tuesday, the North’s state media reported that the regime had conducted a tactical drill simulating a nuclear counterattack using super-large multiple rocket launchers, which it said was in response to the joint Korea Flying Training (KFT) exercise by South Korea and the United States that began last week.

During her visit to the demilitarized zone dividing the Korean Peninsula earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Washington was looking at “all possibilities” and “out of the box” ways to continue monitoring and enforcing sanctions against the North.

At a press conference held later at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Thomas-Greenfield said the United States would engage with not only South Korea and Japan, but also “like-minded countries” to develop options both inside and outside the United Nations to continue the work of the organization's panel of experts.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations noted that Russia and China will likely continue trying to block efforts to monitor sanctions against the North, but said their obstruction “is not going to stop us from finding that path moving forward.”

Thomas-Greenfield also called on Pyongyang to respond to calls for dialogue from Washington, which she said “harbors no hostile intent” toward the North.

“We have repeatedly asked Pyongyang to reject provocation and embrace dialogue. We have held the doors open for meaningful diplomacy and we remain open to dialogue,” she said.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]