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US seeking ‘world’s subordination’: North Korea

The meeting would be the first time Mr Kim has hosted a fellow head of state.

The meeting would be the first time Mr Kim has hosted a fellow head of state. Photo: Getty

US President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy is a “criminal document” that seeks the “total subordination of the whole world to the interests of the US”, North Korea’s foreign ministry says.

“This has fully revealed that ‘America first policy’ which the gang of Trump is crying out loudly about is nothing but the proclamation of aggression aimed at holding sway over the world according to its taste and at its own free will,” a foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday, according to a statement released by state media outlet KCNA.

In the document, announced on Monday, Mr Trump said Washington had to deal with the challenge posed by North Korea’s weapons programmes.

North Korea’s statement comes after The Telegraph in the United Kingdom reported the White House was drawing up plans for a “bloody nose” military attack on the rogue nation.

“The Pentagon is trying to find options that would allow them to punch the North Koreans in the nose, get their attention and show that we’re serious,” a former US security official told the paper.

The UN Security Council is due to vote on Friday on a US-drafted resolution that seeks, yet again, to toughen sanctions on North Korea in response to its latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch.

The draft, seen by Reuters on Thursday, seeks to ban nearly 90 per cent of refined petroleum product exports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and demand the repatriation of North Koreans working abroad within 12 months.

It would also cap crude oil supplies to North Korea at four million barrels a year. The United States has been calling on China to limit its oil supply to its neighbour and ally.

The text was circulated to the 15-member council on Thursday. While it was not immediately clear how China would vote, traditionally a draft on North Korea is not given to all members until it is agreed by Beijing and Washington.

The US has been negotiating with China on the draft resolution for the past week, diplomats said. If adopted, it would be the 10th resolution imposing new sanctions on North Korea over its missile and nuclear programs since 2006.

To pass, a resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.

The United States late last month warned North Korea’s leadership it would be “utterly destroyed” if war were to break out. The warning followed Pyongyang’s test-firing of its most advanced missile which put the US mainland within range.

UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman visited Pyongyang earlier this month – the first senior UN official to do so since 2011 – and said North Korean officials did commit to talks, but he believes he left “the door ajar.”

Topics: North Korea
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