North Korea blasts unilateral US bans on states as ‘anachronistic’

President Donald Trump signs the “Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017” at the White House, June 23, 2017, in Washington. (Photo by AP)

North Korean has blasted the United States for its “anachronistic” efforts to impose unilateral sanctions on sovereign states as well as enforcing a “childish” travel ban on Americans wishing to visit the Asian country.

“The act of the US which is so fond of rigging up sanctions law and brandishing the sanctions club against other sovereign states is no better than that of a hooligan which cannot be allowed by international law,” said a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman in a statement carried Saturday by the country’s state new agency KCNA.

The “DPRK strongly condemns and rejects the so-called unilateral sanctions by the US, and all other countries in the world also need to seriously ponder over the outrageous and unlawful act of the US,” the statement added, referring to the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The development came after US President Donald Trump signed a congressional bill, titled ‘Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act,’ into law earlier in the week in a bid to impose further economic sanctions on North Korea, Russia and Iran.

While signing the legislation, Trump boasted that it “sends a clear message to North Korea that the American people will not tolerate their dangerous and destabilizing behavior.”

A file photo of a North Korean ballistic missile launch

Pyongyang then reacted swiftly to the move, slamming Washington’s unilateral economic punitive measure as a “criminal conduct” and vowing that US sanctions will never work on North Korea.

The foreign ministry spokesman further emphasized, “The anachronistic daydream of the US politicians of damaging by means of sanctions the overall national power and strategic prestige of the DPRK which has been markedly boosted are being subject to humiliation within the US as well.”

The statement also urged Washington to focus on its own political crisis rather than “hopeless sanctions racket” against the DPRK, adding that the US is just “terrified” of the country’s rapid advance in its nuclear and missile program.

It further censured the US State Department’s travel ban for Americans wishing to visit North Korea, describing it as “a vile measure to limit the people-to-people exchange so as not to allow the US citizens to see the true picture” of the DPRK.

“The US administration took this childish measure of issuing a travel ban to our country while finding fault with the exercise of legitimate right of the sovereign state,” the statement added, noting that “there is no country in the world that will ignore the foreigners who committed hostile acts within its territory.”

Meanwhile, the US has drafted a new UN Security Council resolution – due for consideration on Saturday -- which seeks to cripple Pyongyang’s remaining export revenue.

Russia and China, however, have maintained that imposing further sanctions on Pyongyang would not resolve the crisis, urging the US to halt its massive joint military drills with South Korea which the North considers as major threat targeting its existence.