Trump’s security strategy seeks ‘total subordination of whole world’, North Korea complains
US President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy unveiled this week is a “criminal document” that seeks the “total subordination of the whole world to the interests of the US”, North Korea’s foreign ministry said on Friday.
“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, according to a statement released by state media outlet KCNA.
The ministry slammed the Trump strategy, which called North Korea a “rogue” state, as “a typical outcome of the Yankee-style arrogance”.
In the document, announced on Monday, Trump said Washington had to deal with the challenge posed by North Korea’s weapons programmes.
At the same time, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has expressed pride over what he described as his country’s rapid development of nuclear capability, KCNA said on Friday.
Kim said in his opening speech at a rare ruling party meeting convened on Thursday that the quick development is “now exerting big influence on the world political structure and strategic environment”, and that “nobody can deny the entity of [North Korea] which rapidly emerged as a strategic state capable of posing a substantial nuclear threat to the United States”.
His remarks were made at the Conference of Cell Chairpersons of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
The conference, being held for the first time since January 2013, is apparently aimed at tightening Kim’s grip on power at a time when the international community is considering imposing another round of sanctions following North Korea’s launch last month of a long range missile it says is capable of striking anywhere in the US with a heavy nuclear warhead.
On Friday in New York, UN Security Council members are scheduled to vote on a US-drafted sanctions resolution that limits North Korea import of refined oil products, including diesel and kerosene, to 500,000 barrels a year from January 1 – a roughly 90 per cent reduction.
Apparently with UN sanctions in mind, Kim said: “Although grave challenges that should not be overlooked face us, we neither feel disappointed nor are afraid of them but are optimistic about progress of our revolution under this situation. The prevailing situation offers a good opportunity to further strengthen our unity and make us develop with our own efforts in all fields. We have to work with confidence, optimism and smile.”
Additional reporting by Kyodo
