Pyongyang Says Trump’s “Terror Sponsor” Label Is a ‘Serious Provocation’

Pyongyang-Donald Trump’s decision to label North Korea a “state sponsor of terror” is a serious provocation that will only serve to make Pyongyang more committed to retaining its nuclear arsenal, a senior official has warned.

The move triggered sanctions including restrictions on US foreign assistance and a ban on defence exports and sales, according to UK’s “The Independent” newspaper.

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) reacted on Wednesday by calling it a “serious provocation and violent infringement” of the US regime and referring to the Trump administration as “heinous gangsters”.

State media outlet KCNA accused the US of having “openly revealed to the whole world its intention to destroy our ideology and system by using all kinds of means and methods”.

 “Our army and people are full of rage and anger toward the heinous gangsters who dared to put the name of our sacred country in this wretched list of ‘terrorism’ and are hardening their will to settle all accounts with those gangsters at any time in any way,” it said.

A spokesman for the foreign ministry denied in an interview with KCNA that his government engaged in any terrorism, saying the designation was “just a tool for American style authoritarianism that can be attached or removed at any time in accordance with its interests”.

The official said Pyongyang was now more committed than ever to its nuclear missile program.

He said: “As long as the US continues with its anti-DPRK hostile policy, our deterrence will be further strengthened.

“The US will be held entirely accountable for all the consequences to be entailed by its impudent provocation to the DPRK.”

H.M