North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said “hostile forces” were trying to stifle Korean people through “brigandish sanctions and blockade”, Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday. His comments come as the United States tries to maintain pressure on Pyongyang over its nuclear programme.
Kim met United States President Donald Trump during a historic summit in Singapore on June 12. He had committed to the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula during the summit.
However, since the meeting, there has been little progress and North Korea has criticised Washington for its “gangster-like” demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament. US Secretary of State in July said North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs in spite of its pledge to denuclearise.
The US has also urged the international community to maintain sanctions and decided to blacklist companies based in Russia, China and Singapore for violating sanctions on North Korea. The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said its decision was in accordance with the restrictions imposed by the United Nations Security Council to curb North Korea’s nuclear programme.
The aim of the sanctions are cutting off sources of fuel and revenue that Pyongyang uses to fund its nuclear weapons programme and sustain its military expenditure.
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