North Korea vows to match US ‘hostility’ with patience after new sanctions

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visits the 11th Corps of the Korean People's Army on Nov. 1, in this still photo aired by the state-run Korean Central Television the following day. (Yonhap)

North Korea denounced the latest US sanctions as evidence of Washington's “unchanging hostility” toward the country, vowing to respond with patience and corresponding measures for as long as such a policy continues.

North Korea’s Vice Minister for US Affairs at the Foreign Ministry Kim Un-chol issued a press statement titled "We clarify our clear stance as we confirmed again the US ulterior intention to be hostile towards our state to the last" on Thursday morning.

The press statement came after the US Treasury Department on Tuesday announced sanctions on two North Korean financial institutions and eight individuals for aiding the Kim Jong-un regime in laundering funds obtained through illicit cyber operations, including overseas IT worker fraud.

Such punitive measures came days after US President Donald Trump’s trip to South Korea last week ended without a long-sought meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

“Through this, the US administration fully demonstrated its position to be hostile toward our state to the very end," read the Korean-language statement quoted by state-run Korean Central News Agency, which mainly caters to global audiences.

The statement labeled the US sanctions as a means to “express its invariable hostile intention towards the DPRK again in a habitual and traditional way," referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Pyongyang also repeatedly underscored the futility of using US sanctions as a policy tool, describing it as the behavior of "expecting a new outcome while following the old script of the failed past."

"Just as in the past, the US sanctions will have no effect whatsoever on our thinking or position toward the US, either now or in the future," the statement read.

“The US should take note of the fact that the possibility of changing the current strategic situation entrenched between the DPRK and the US in its favor is below zero, no matter how fully it may mobilize its arsenal of sanctions."

North Korea also reaffirmed its action-for-action principle toward sanctions, dimming prospects for resurrecting dialogue with the US.

“Now that the current US administration has made clear its position to be hostile toward us to the very end, we will likewise respond with patience and in a corresponding manner, for as long as it takes," the statement read.

The Trump administration announced new sanctions on North Korea this week, in addition to the sanctions imposed on Tuesday. The US State Department disclosed Monday that Washington will seek additional penalties in the coming days through the UN Security Council’s 1718 Sanctions Committee, Reuters reported, citing an unnamed State Department official.

A senior Unification Ministry official on Thursday noted that the "vice minister’s statement appears to be a customary response to the sanctions, but its tone is relatively restrained.”

“It was delivered by a working-level official, and the content also seems somewhat measured and controlled in its expression,” the official said on condition of anonymity, noting that the statement lacked direct criticism of the US.

The press statement also omitted direct criticism of Trump and his administration by name, instead referring only to "the US" and "the US administration."

Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, also believes that North Korea appeared to exercise a degree of restraint by issuing a statement through a vice foreign minister.

“However, the statement represents North Korea’s official position that further diminishes the possibility of resuming dialogue or negotiations with Washington,” Lim said.

Lim explained that North Korea rejected any prospect of talks or negotiations under the current US policy, citing the new sanctions as proof of the "US' unchanging hostility." The statement also signaled Pyongyang’s readiness for a prolonged standoff with Washington through its use of the phrase “for as long as it takes.”

“It indicates that North Korea will not stop countering the US’ hostile policy with corresponding measures,” Lim said. "The message suggests that the country is in no hurry to strike a deal and is prepared to endure until the US abandons its hostile policy toward North Korea."