North Korea accuses US of being 'hell-bent' on hostile acts despite historic meeting

Just days ago, Donald Trump stepped over the border into North Korea
AFP/Getty Images

North Korea has accused the US of being “hell-bent” on hostile acts, despite a recent agreement between the two countries to resume nuclear talks.

Pyongyang’s UN Mission said the US was “inciting an atmosphere of sanctions”.

A press statement from the mission pointed a finger at US efforts to exert "overt pressure" and have the world's nations implement UN sanctions.

Donald Trump became the first sitting American president to cross the border at the Demilitarized Zone (Reuters )
Reuters

It said the US and 23 other countries sent a letter to the UN Security Council committee monitoring sanctions on North Korea demanding urgent action "under the absurd pretext of 'excess in the amount of refined petroleum imported"'.

The US and the other countries accused North Korea, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), of violating UN sanctions by importing far more than the annual limit of 500,000 barrels of refined petroleum products, which are key for its economy.

But last month Russia and China blocked the sanctions committee from declaring that Pyongyang breached the annual import limit.

Mr Kim and Mr Trump shake hands during a meeting at the Demilitarized Zone
AFP/Getty Images

North Korea's UN Mission said the US, Britain, France and Germany then circulated a joint letter to all UN member states on June 29 "calling for repatriation of the DPRK workers abroad, thus inciting an atmosphere of sanctions and pressure against the DPRK".

That day, Mr Trump issued an unprecedented invitation to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas.

Mr Kim accepted, and at their Sunday meeting Mr Trump became the first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea when he crossed the demarcation line.

The pair agreed at the meeting to restart negotiations designed to denuclearise the Korean peninsula.

North Korea's state media described their meeting as "an amazing event".

But there was nothing positive in Wednesday's statement from North Korea's UN Mission, which made no mention of nuclear talks, focusing instead on sanctions.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in