North Korea's Kim Threatens US After Trump Orders New Sanctions Against Nuclear Buildup

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (AP)

By    |   Thursday, 21 September 2017 06:57 PM EDT ET

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un lashed out at President Donald Trump late Thursday, calling him "deranged" and saying he will "pay dearly" for threatening to destroy Pyongyang in his speech to the United Nations on Tuesday.

In a unusual personal statement issued by the North Korean state-owned Central News Agency, Kim said Trump was "unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country."

He also described the president as "a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire."

Trump told the U.N. on Tuesday the United States would have no choice but to "totally destroy" North Korea unless Pyongyang ended its nuclear challenge, mocking Kim as a "rocket man" on a suicide mission.

Unless North Korea backs down, he said, "We will have no choice than to totally destroy North Korea," Trump told the U.N. General Assembly.

"Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and his regime," he said.

Despite the fiery rhetoric, Trump also has not in previous statements ruled out actually sitting down with Kim to discuss a truce.

Trump also signed an executive order earlier Thursday imposing even tougher sanctions and allowing the U.S. to freeze assets of financial institutions of anyone conducting "significant" trade in goods, services, or technology with Pyongyang.

The administration could also freeze the assets of companies backing the country's textile, fishing, and manufacturing industries.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters his agency would work with other federal entities, including the Coast Guard, to enforce the new sanctions.

"No bank in any country should be used to facilitate Kim Jong Un's destructive behavior," Mnuchin said.

"Foreign financial institutions are now on notice that going forward they can choose to do business with the United States or with North Korea, but not both."

In his statement, Kim said President Trump's remarks had convinced him "that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last."

Kim said he was "thinking hard" about his response, but Trump will "pay dearly for his speech calling for totally destroying" North Korea.

The statement ended by saying: "A frightened dog barks louder."

Trump stopped short of going after North Korea's biggest trading partner, China, and praised its central bank for ordering Chinese banks to stop doing business with North Korea.

The additional sanctions on Pyongyang showed Trump was giving more time for economic pressures to weigh on North Korea after warning about the possibility of military action earlier in the week in his first speech to the United Nations.

Asked ahead of a lunch meeting with the leaders of Japan and South Korea if diplomacy was still possible, Trump nodded his head and said, "Why not?"

North Korea has launched dozens of missiles under Kim's leadership as it accelerates a weapons program designed to give it the ability to target the United States with a powerful, nuclear-tipped missile.

Resisting intensifying international pressure, Pyongyang conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test Sept. 3, and launched numerous missiles this year, including two intercontinental ballistic missiles and two other rockets that flew over Japan.

"Today I'm announcing a new executive order, just signed, that significantly expands our authority to target individual companies, financial institutions, that finance and facilitate trade with North Korea," Trump told reporters.

"Our new executive order will cut off sources of revenue that fund North Korea's efforts to develop the deadliest weapons known to humankind."

Trump said North Korea's textiles, fishing, information technology, and manufacturing industries were among those the United States could target.

"For much too long North Korea has been allowed to abuse the international financial system" to facilitate funding its nuclear and missile programs, Trump said.

Trump did not mention Pyongyang's oil trade. Four sources told Reuters China's central bank has told banks to strictly implement United Nations sanctions against North Korea.

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously imposed nine rounds of sanctions on North Korea since 2006, the latest earlier this month capping fuel supplies to the isolated state.

European Union ambassadors have reached an initial agreement to impose more economic sanctions on North Korea, going beyond the latest round of U.N. measures, officials, and diplomats said.

Trump's speech Tuesday was his most direct military threat to attack North Korea and his latest expression of concern about Pyongyang's repeated launching of ballistic missiles over Japan and underground nuclear tests.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who met with Trump on Thursday and addressed the U.N. General Assembly, said sanctions were needed to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table and force it to give up its nuclear weapons, but Seoul was not seeking North Korea's collapse.

"All of our endeavors are to prevent war from breaking out and maintain peace," Moon said in his speech. He warned the nuclear issue had to be managed stably so that "accidental military clashes will not destroy peace."

Aid Plan

Anthony Ruggiero, with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, said Trump's order would force banks and firms to choose between North Korea and the United States.

"This approach worked with Iran as companies, banks, governments, and individuals chose the United States, and likely will restrict North Korea's revenue," Ruggiero said.

South Korea approved a plan Thursday to send $8 million worth of aid to North Korea, as China warned the crisis on the Korean peninsula was getting more serious by the day.

The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty. The North accuses the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, of planning to invade and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies.

Mnuchin has warned China if it did not follow through on new U.N. sanctions on the North Koreans, Washington would "put additional sanctions on them and prevent them from accessing the U.S. and international dollar system."

Last month, the Trump administration blacklisted 16 Chinese, Russian, and Singaporean companies and people for trading with banned North Korean entities, including in coal, oil, and metals.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday there were "some indications" sanctions were beginning to cause fuel shortages in North Korea.

He said North Korea's textiles, fishing, information technology, and manufacturing industries were among those the United States could target.

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Headline
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un lashed out at President Donald Trump late Thursday, calling him "deranged" and saying he will "pay dearly" for threatening to destroy Pyongyang in his speech to the United Nations on Tuesday.
nuclear weapons, sanctions, kim jung un, barking dog
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2017-57-21
Thursday, 21 September 2017 06:57 PM
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