N. Korea Continues Tough Talk, Claims to Have Nuke-Tipped Missiles
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Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea continued its provocative rhetoric on Friday, a day after the U.N. Security Council voted to impose tough new sanctions on the country as punishment for its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile program.
Pyongyang on Friday repeated its vows to ditch all non-aggression pacts with South Korea and again threatened a “preemptive nuclear attack” on the the U.S. as well. It claims the regime is standing by with a nuclear bomb mounted on a long-range missile.
Analysts, however, believe that’s a bluff and that North Korea currently does not have that sort of technology — although it is getting closer.
The latest threats come after the Security Council imposed new sanctions on Thursday that will make it harder for North Korea to finance its nuclear weapons program.
The resolution targets North Korean banks, diplomats and officials at a company identified as the country’s primary arms dealer. It also prohibits the sale of luxury goods to North Korean leadership.
China, North Korea’s staunchest ally, joined the U.S. and other members of the Security Council to make the vote unanimous.
The vote came hours after Pyongyang said that it would “exercise its right for a pre-emptive nuclear strike to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors.”
In recent days, North Korea has vowed to turn Seoul and Washington into a “sea of fire,” has imposed no-sail/no-fly zones along its coasts, and warned that it might end the armistice that halted the Korean War in 1953 without a peace treaty.
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