N Korea Urges «Telling Blow» to Forces Imposing Sanctions

By Staff, Agencies

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said Thursday his country needs to deliver a “telling blow” to states imposing sanctions by boosting its own economy to be more self-sufficient, according to state media Korean Central News Agency.

The remarks were Kim’s first official comments regarding North Korea’s position since the failed summit with US President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February.

The demilitarization talks with Washington broke down in part over Pyongyang’s demands for immediate sanctions relief.

Trump is set to host South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House later on Thursday, seeking to rekindle dialogue with the North.

Kim told top officials of the ruling Workers' Party on Wednesday to push ahead with "self-reliance" to undermine the sanctions, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

He said developing the socialist economy would "deal a telling blow to the hostile forces who go with bloodshot eyes miscalculating that sanctions can bring the DPRK to its knees," the report said, using the acronym for the North's official name.

Kim made no mention of nuclear weapons, nor did he criticize his US counterpart, according to KCNA.

Trump and Kim held their first landmark summit in Singapore last June, where the pair signed a vaguely-worded agreement on the "denuclearization of the Korean peninsula".

But the failure to reach agreement at their second summit in Hanoi -- which broke up without even a joint statement -- has raised questions over the future of the wider process.

Both sides expressed willingness to talk further and Trump has repeatedly said since that he maintains good relations with his North Korean counterpart, boasting he had blocked new sanctions planned for Pyongyang.

"President Trump likes Chairman Kim and he doesn't think these sanctions will be necessary," the president's spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, said.

Adam Schiff, a Democrat who heads the intelligence committee in the House of Representatives, blasted Trump for cancelling sanctions "imposed only yesterday and championed by his own national security advisor, because he 'loves' Kim."

North Korea has also been careful not to criticize Trump personally, while saying last month that sanctions against it were an "action against humanity to destroy modern civilization and turn the society back in a medieval dark age".