North Korea responds to latest UN sanctions against regime
北외무성 "자위적 핵 억제력 더 억척같이 다져나갈 것" We start with North Korea's response to the latest UN sanctions slapped on the regime,... following its missile test in late November. Pyongyang says the U.S. should "wake up from its pipe dream" of the regime ever giving up its nuclear programs. Lee Jeong-yeon has more. North Korea has denounced the latest UN sanctions, calling them an “act of war” and vowing to retaliate against the U.S. sympathizers who approved it. According to the North's Korean Central News Agency, the regime's foreign ministry called on the U.S. to abandon what it called its "hostile policy” toward North Korea and “learn to co-exist." The North also claimed that its weapons are solely for self-defense and that the U.S. should “wake up from its pipe dream" of it ever giving them up. The latest sanctions were passed unanimously on Friday. They slash North Korea's imports of refined oil products like gasoline, require all North Koreans overseas to return home within 24 months, and they further restrict shipping. This comes about a month after the regime's latest ballistic missile launch that Kim Jong-un claims can target the entire United States, and a week after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called out Russia and China for supporting the regime. Meanwhile, North Korea held a gathering in Pyongyang this past week... of lower-level officials in the ruling Worker's Party -- the first such meeting in five years. The regime's state-run media has reported that leader Kim Jong-un gave a speech on Saturday, saying everything the Party has done so far is "just the beginning"... and that it will come up with more business ideas that will be carried out "aggressively" to build a stronger socialist state. Lee Jeong-yeon, Arirang News.