North Korea threatens South over UN sanctions

North Korea on Friday threatened “physical counter-measures” against rival South Korea – the latest in a series of bellicose warnings sparked by a tightening of UN sanctions against Pyongyang.

“If the South Korean puppet regime of traitors directly participates in the so-called UN ‘sanctions’, strong physical countermeasures would be taken,” the North’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Fatherland said.

The warning, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, came a day after North Korea’s top military body threatened to conduct a third nuclear test and boost its ability to strike the United States.

The latest warning re-focused Pyongyang’s anger from Washington to Seoul.

“Sanctions amount to a declaration of war against us,” said the committee, which is the prime state body responsible for inter-Korean dialogue and exchange.

“As long as the South Korean puppet traitors’ regime continues with its anti-DPRK (North Korea) hostile policy, we will never sit down with them,” it said.

The current upsurge in tensions has its roots in Pyonyang’s defiant decision to push ahead with a long-range rocket launch on December 12 – insisting it was a peaceful mission to place a satellite in orbit.