North Korea warns US sanctions could derail plans to denuclearise

North Korea has warned that new US sanctions against senior figures in the regime are a “deliberate provocation” that could derail its attempts to denuclearize, six months after its leader, Kim Jong-un held historic talks with Donald Trump.

In a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency, the North praised Trump for his “willingness” to improve relations with Pyongyang, but said the US treasury’s decision to impose sanctions on three officials over alleged human rights abuses could “block the path to denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula forever”.

“We have been proposing that the DPRK-US relations be improved on a step-by-step approach of resolving what is feasible one by one, by giving priority to confidence building,” it added, using the acronym for the country’s official name the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The statement, attributed to the policy research director of the North Korean foreign ministry’s Institute for American Studies, added that US officials, including those at the state department, were “bent on bringing DPRK-US relations back to the status of last year which was marked by exchanges of fire” – a reference to North Korean ballistic missile launches and a nuclear test, as well as angry verbal exchanges between the countries’ leaders.

It said Washington was guilty of a “grave miscalculation” if it believed that applying more economic pressure on the regime would force it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme. Instead, further sanctions could “block the path to denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula forever”, it said.

Talks between Pyongyang and Washington have made little progress since Kim and Trump agreed to a vaguely worded statement putting North Korea on the path towards denuclearisation when they met in Singapore in June.

The two sides have yet to reschedule working-level talks between the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and his North Korean counterpart Kim Yong-chol that were supposed to have taken place in New York in early November.

That meeting was postponed indefinitely after the two sides failed to find common ground over Pyongyang’s demand for sanctions relief and calls by Washington for progress on denuclearisation.

Stephen Biegun, the US special representative on North Korea policy, is due to visit Seoul this week for talks with South Korean officials aimed at salvaging derailed denuclearisation negotiations with Pyongyang, Kyodo news agency said.

The three officials targeted by the new measures include Choe Ryong-hae, who is believed to be close to Kim.

North Korea’s outburst came as it marked the seventh anniversary of the death of its former leader, Kim Jong-il, with vows of loyalty to his son Kim Jong-un.

Tens of thousands of people in Pyongyang offered flowers and paid respects to the late leader at Mansu Hill, the location of huge statues of Kim Jong-il and his father and founder of North Korea, Kim Il-sung.