Pyongyang tells Donald Trump to stop failed US sanctions policy

An editorial in Pyongyang's Workers' Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun addresses the new president. It reiterates that North Korea’s position will not change, demanding an end to UN sanctions and stating that it will persist with its nuclear programme.

Pyongyang (AsiaNews) – An editorial in Pyongyang's Workers' Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun appears to be addressed to US president-elect Donald Trump.

Reiterating that North Korea would never stop its nuclear programme, the article states that a "United States that hopes for a denuclearized North Korea is living on a delusion of the old era".

To the new US president, Pyongyang touts its nuclear weapons and slams the policy of economic sanctions as a "choking-off scheme that cannot evade failure."

Since it launched its nuclear weapons programme, North Korea has been subject to heavy economic sanctions, including embargoes that were adopted at the United Nations Security Council  last March in response to its nuclear test in January.

"The wretched fate of those in power in the United States, who are in a frenzy about crushing to death [North Korea] by sanctions, substantiates the hollow claims of their effectiveness," the editorial reads.

Going one step further, it compares the policy failures to a growing snowball that is now directly linked to the "survival of the United States."

President-elect Trump has not yet explained his view on North Korean policy, but during the campaign he did express willingness to talk with Pyongyang.

• north korea
• kim
• united states
• donald trump