North Korea has denounced the latest UN sanctions imposed on the isolated state, vowing to take action in response to the international pressure amid escalating regional tension.<br /><br />The North’s official news agency KCNA said the latest measures – voted unanimously by the United Nations on Saturday – infringe on its sovereignty, adding that Pyongyang would take “righteous action”.<br /><br />The statement repeated the North’s previous stance that it would never place its nuclear programme on the negotiating table as long as the United States maintained a hostile policy towards it.<br /><br />“There is no bigger mistake than the United States believing that its land is safe across the ocean,” the agency said.<br /><br />Earlier South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump, the two leaders agreeing to continue putting pressure on Pyongyang over its nuclear programme.<br /><br />At a forum in Manila the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met his Chinese counterpart, saying that the support of China and Russia for the sanctions sent a strong message – and the best signal North Korea could give would be to halt its missile launches. <br /><br />“We’re not going to give someone a specific number of days or weeks. This is really about the spirit of these talks, and they (North Korea) can demonstrate that they’re ready to sit with a spirit of finding a way forward in these talks by no longer conducting these missile tests. So this is not a ‘give me 30 days and we’re ready to talk’: it’s not quite that simple,” Tillerson said. <br /><br />The Chinese foreign minister is said to have warned his North Korean counterpart that the situation was close to “crisis point” over its nuclear programme and missile tests.<br /><br />But despite Pyongyang’s presence at the Manila summit, there has been no sign of an opening towards dialogue.<br /><br />Reports say the foreign ministers from North and South Korea held a brief and rare face-to-face meeting at a regional forum in the Philippines. However the North’s minister is said to have dismissed the request from the South, although this version was disputed by China.<br /><br />The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday called on all sides to exercise restraint and make positive efforts to resolve the North Korean issue. The ministry added in a statement that Beijing had always supported a resolution via talks.<br />
