KCNA via REUTERS
- North Korea said the US is "hell-bent on hostile acts" and "obsessed with sanctions" just three days after the two countries agreed to resume to nuclear negotiations.
- US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed that the two countries would resume talks after a historic meeting that saw Trump become the first US president to enter North Korean territory.
- But a statement from North Korea’s United Nations delegation suggests a more heated relationship, as it accused the US of "considering sanctions as a panacea for all problems."
- North Korea was responding to a letter from the US, France, the UK, and Germany that urged UN member states to impose sanctions against North Korea.
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North Korea accused the US of being "hell-bent on hostile acts" and "obsessed with sanctions" just three days after US President Donald Trump’s historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea’s delegation to the United Nations said on Wednesday that the US is "practically more and more hell-bent on the hostile acts" and is "obsessed with sanctions," Reuters reported.
The comments come just three days after Trump met with Kim on Sunday and briefly entered North Korean territory, making him the first sitting US president to do so.
Both leaders agreed to resume negotiations that collapsed in February. According to Trump, talks collapsed after North Korea demanded sanctions be lifted even if it only partly denuclearized, though North Korea disputed that account.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Trump hailed Sunday’s meeting as "wonderful," but North Korea’s new statement indicates a return to anger between the two countries.
North Korea said in the statement that the US has made "deliberate attempts" to "undermine the peaceful atmosphere that has been created on the Korean Peninsula in no easy way."
Pyongyang said it was responding to an accusation by the US that it had breached a cap on refined petroleum imports, and to a letter sent by UN Security Council members to other UN states urging them to impose sanctions on North Korea.
Trump proposed in a tweet on Saturday, the day before Trump and Kim’s meeting, that the two leaders meet, and North Korea said at the time that this was the only proposal they had received.
North Korea said in its statement on Wednesday that the fact that the meeting was proposed and it received the letter on the same day was significant.
"What can’t be overlooked is the fact that this joint letter game was carried out by the permanent mission of the United States to the U.N. under instruction of the State Department, on the very same day when President Trump proposed for the summit meeting," it said.
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
According to Reuters, the letter is dated June 27 — last Thursday — and urges UN member states to comply with demands from the UN’s sanctions committee to send North Koreans working in other countries back to the country.
The North Korean delegation said on Wednesday: "It is quite ridiculous for the United States to continue to behave obsessed with sanctions and pressure campaign against [North Korea], considering sanctions as a panacea for all problems."
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See Also:
- Ivanka Trump joined in nuclear negotiations with Kim Jong Un after criticism over her role at G20, reports say
- Trump tweets that Kim Jong Un ‘looked really well and very healthy’ following meeting in North Korea
- Ivanka Trump said it was ‘surreal’ to step into North Korea as she joined her father’s historic meeting with Kim Jong Un
Source: Business Insider – sbaker@businessinsider.com (Sinéad Baker)