North Korea threatens US with the ‘greatest pain it has ever experienced in its history’ after tough UN sanctions

NORTH Korea has blasted “vicious” sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council over its latest and most powerful nuclear test, threatening revenge against Washington, who it blamed for leading the charge.

“Yesterday the Washington regime fabricated the most vicious sanctions resolution,” Pyongyang’s ambassador in Geneva told the UN Conference on Disarmament in the first North Korean reaction to Monday’s unanimous vote.

“My delegation condemns in the strongest terms and categorically rejects the latest illegal ... UN Security Council resolution,” ambassador Han Tae Song told the gathering.

“The forthcoming measures by DPRK (the Democratic Republic of Korea) will make the US suffer the greatest pain it has ever experienced in its history,” he said.

The move by the Security Council slaps a ban on textile exports and restricts shipments of oil products to punish Pyongyang for its sixth and largest nuclear test.

The US-drafted sanctions resolution passed just one month after the Security Council decided to ban exports of coal, lead and seafood in response to North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

The sanctions follow a series of North Korean missile tests in recent months, culminating in an intercontinental ballistic missile that appeared to bring much of the US mainland into range.

It followed up with a sixth nuclear test on September 3, its largest to date, which North Korea said was a hydrogen bomb small enough to fit onto a missile.

The United States and its allies argue that tougher sanctions will pile pressure on Kim’s regime to come to the negotiation table to discuss an end to its nuclear and missile tests.

“My hope is that the regime will hear the message loud and clear and it will choose a different path,” US ambassador Robert Wood told the Conference on Disarmament.

BISHOP BACKS NORTH KOREA SANCTIONS

It comes as Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop welcomed the unanimous resolution by the United Nations to impose new sanctions on North Korea.

She told a meeting of Coalition MPs in Canberra yesterday that it would be the toughest sanctions package yet.

In Question Time, Ms Bishop outlined how the tough new measures would bite.

“The new additional sanctions target very important parts of the North Korean economy,” she said. “There will be a complete ban on the export of all North Korean textiles — that’s worth about $950 million a year to the regime. The amount of oil that North Korea can import will be reduced by a third.

“There will also be a prohibition on the importation of natural gas. All joint ventures with North Korean individuals and entities are banned,” she said. “No North Korean worker will be permitted to work overseas once their current contracts are completed. And no new work visas will be issued.

“Again, this will deny the regime of hundreds of millions of dollars that it has been channelling from remittances to fund its illegal programs.”