North Korea Accuses Trump of a ‘Serious Provocation’<br />22, 2017<br />SEOUL, South Korea — Two days after President Trump re-designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, the country responded on Wednesday by calling the decision "a serious provocation"<br />and vowed to keep up its nuclear and missile programs as a deterrent against the "hostile" United States.<br />"The U.S., the kingpin of all kinds of terrorism who cannot even prevent terror in its own territory, is acting like an ‘international judge on terrorism’ while attaching<br />or removing the label of ‘state sponsor of terrorism’ on sovereign countries," a spokesman of the North’s Foreign Ministry told its official Korean Central News Agency.<br />"This is a serious provocation and a violent infringement upon our dignified country." The comments were North Korea’s first official reaction to<br />Mr. Trump’s decision on Monday to restore the country to Washington’s list of terrorism-sponsoring states, along with Iran, Sudan and Syria.<br />But he said that the North’s "deterrence will be further strengthened" — and<br />that the country "must continue to keep the treasured nuclear sword in our hands more tightly" — as long as Washington continued with its "hostile policy" against the North.<br />On Tuesday, the Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions to impede the North’s nuclear<br />and ballistic missile program, targeting North Korean companies and ships as well as Chinese trading companies.
