SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korea slammed the U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration for imposing sanctions that “antagonise” it, and vowed to respond correspondingly, state media KCNA said on Thursday.
The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday sanctioned eight individuals and two entities that it said were involved in a variety of North Korean cyber-related money-laundering schemes, in a move aimed at cutting off funding for the country’s weapons programs.
“There is nothing so silly as to expect a new result while following the old screenplay of the failed past,” KCNA said, in a statement citing the country’s vice foreign minister in charge of U.S. affairs.
“The U.S. needs to realise that no matter how much sanctions it mobilises, the possibility of changing the current strategic situation… between the U.S. and North Korea to its advantage is less than zero.”
“As long as the current U.S. administration has expressed its stance to antagonise us to the end, we will also be patient and respond correspondingly,” KCNA said.
South Korea’s spy agency said this week there is a high possibility that North Korea and the United States will hold a summit early next year. Trump had repeatedly called for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his trip to Asia last month and had left the door open to a future meeting.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee, editing by Deepa Babington)
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