N. Korea lambasts UK over remarks on nuke program

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL (AA) – North Korea insisted Friday other countries are safe from its nuclear force as long as they do not “infringe upon” its interests.

Just hours later, the reclusive state was hit by a new package of global sanctions as the UN Security Council (UNSC) passed a resolution in response to the North’s latest long-range missile test.

Pyongyang celebrated last month’s launch as evidence North Korea is able to strike anywhere in the U.S.

After British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said during an interview with the U.K. press this week that Pyongyang’s development of nukes poses a “massive” threat to his country, the North responded with a statement from the Korea-Europe Association.

“Our nuclear force would not pose any threat to any country and region as long as the interests of (North Korea) are not infringed upon,” a spokesman for the association said, according to Pyongyang’s state-run KCNA news agency.

But the official also lambasted the “servile act of Britain to give (a) good impression to the U.S.”

That sentiment will have been driven further by the UNSC’s unanimous vote in New York Friday to impose further punitive measures on the North. The U.K. is one of five permanent council members with the power of veto.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the new sanctions, which target the supply of oil and sources of state funding, even as Seoul wants talks with North Korea.

“We again urge Pyongyang to stop its reckless provocations and come out to the path of dialogue for peace and denuclearization,” the ministry said in a statement carried by Yonhap News Agency.