Summary: Facing economic sanctions from the United Nations, North Korea said that it refuses to relinquish its nuclear weapons.
On Sunday, the city of Hiroshima, Japan urged the world to “never again” suffer from an atomic attack; and those words came at a time when North Korea has been accelerating its nuclear weapons program.
North Korea has been testing missiles on-and-off in the Pacific Ocean, and according to Fox News, this has been alarming for the residents of Hiroshima, where the first atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. The bomb killed 140,000, and the radiation had lasting effects on the environment and the people who survived.
“This hell is not a thing of the past,” Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said. “As long as nuclear weapons exist and policymakers threaten their use, their horror could leap into our present at any moment. You could find yourself suffering their cruelty.”
On Sunday, Hiroshima held its annual peace ceremony, and Mayor Matsui said that the U.N. nuclear weapons ban is a sign that the world supports the idea of ridding the world of atomic threats.
While many countries have signed the U.N.’s nuclear weapons agreement, North Korea said that it wants to keep its technology to prevent an invasion from the United States. North Korea’s foreign minister, RiYong-ho, released a statement that U.N. sanctions were “fabricated” and that the country was prepared to give the United States a “severe lesson” if the USA were to take military action against it.
“We will under no circumstances put the nukes and ballistic rockets on the negotiating table,” Ri said to The Independent.
Ri said that North Korea’s firing range was intended for the United States and that the country vowed to not use nuclear weapons on anyone “except the US.”
On August 5, President Donald Trump tweeted that the United Nations had issued North Korea the largest punishment ever on the Asian country.
“The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big financial impact!” Trump tweeted on his personal account.
In a follow-up tweet, President Trump added that North Korea could lose up to a billion dollars because of the sanctions.
Trump’s tweets were delivered the same day that the United Nations had unanimously voted to ban coal, iron, iron ore, seafood, lead and lead ore imports and exports from North Korea.
“This resolution is the single largest economic sanctions package ever leveled against the North Korean regime,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley said. “The price the North Korean leadership will pay for its continued nuclear and missile development will be the loss of one-third of its exports and hard currency. This is the most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation.”
