Pyongyang, May 14: North Korea has on Tuesday denounced the recent seizure of its cargo ships by the United States, describing the act as an “unlawful robbery” and demanded the immediate return of the vessels.
The North Korean official KCNA agency presented an unnamed foreign ministry spokesperson’s statement who accused the US of betraying the spirit of Pyongyang-Washington summit agreement reached last year June between President Donald Trump and his N Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un.
Trump and Kim had agreed over a statement calling for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and enhanced bilateral ties and cooperation, but however, the second summit, the Hanoi summit, abruptly failed to reach any nuclear deal due to both leader’s mismatched demands as Kim stressed over US sanction relief.
According to ANI news reports, the seizure of North Korean cargo ship, announced last week, came during a delicate moment of North-US ties, with Pyongyang reportedly resuming its weapon tests, which is forcing Washington to exempt sanction.
The KCNA statement said, “The U.N. Security Council resolutions the United States mentioned as one of the reasons for robbing our trade vessel equate to a violent infringement of the sovereignty of our country and we have been entirely rejecting them.”
It added saying the US is required to carefully consider what type of consequences or repercussions “their daylight robbery” could bring to the current political situation and should immediately “send back our vessel without hesitation”.
North Korea has been barred from exporting its coal under the United Nations (UN) sanctions imposed in 2017 in order to punish the growing powerful weapon tests by Pyongyang last year.