North Korea on Friday denounced the U.S. imposition of sanctions on leader Kim Jong-un as "an open declaration of war," warning that it will close down all diplomatic channels with the U.S. unless the blacklisting is revoked.
The U.S. rejected the demand, saying it will continue to work with the international community to sustain international attention on the North's "deplorable" human rights situation and to press for Pyongyang to cease such violations.
The North's Foreign Ministry issued the strongly worded statement after the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted Kim and 10 other top officials and five powerful state agencies for their roles in the communist nation's human rights violations.
"This is the worst hostility and an open declaration of war against the DPRK," the North said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
It also called the blacklisting the "worst crime that can never be pardoned."
"The U.S. should immediately and unconditionally retract the recent step for sanctions which dared hurt the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership," the North said. "Every lever and channel for diplomatic contact between the DPRK and the U.S. will be cut off at once in case the U.S. refuses to accept our demand."
The North also said it will deal with all issues arising from relations with the U.S. in accordance with the wartime law as the U.S. "declared a war."
"The DPRK will take the toughest countermeasures to resolutely shatter the hostility of the U.S. as regards the fact that the latter's hostile policy has reached the worst phase of hurting the dignity of the former's supreme leadership," it said.
In response, the United States urged the North to "refrain from actions and rhetoric that further raise tensions in the region" and said it will continue to work for improvement in the North's human rights situation.
"The steps we've taken are intended to promote accountability for North Korean officials responsible for serious human rights abuses and censorship," State Department spokeswoman Katina Adams said in response to a query from Yonhap News Agency.
"We will continue to work closely with the international community to sustain international attention on the deplorable human rights situation in North Korea, to press for the DPRK to stop these serious violations, to close its prison camps, to urge greater freedoms for North Koreans and to seek ways to advance accountability for those most responsible," she said.
It was the first time the U.S. has imposed direct sanctions on the North's leader and the designation also marked the first-ever U.S. sanctions on Pyongyang over its human rights abuses. That shows the U.S. is committed to ratcheting up pressure on Pyongyang.
The North, which tolerates no criticism of its leader, had been expected to respond angrily.
The U.S. has sought to increase pressure on the North, leading the U.N. Security Council to adopt the toughest sanctions ever on Pyongyang and enacting its own unilateral sanctions on the communist nation in the wake of the North's fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch the following month.
Last month, the Treasury Department also designated the North as a "primary money laundering concern," a powerful sanction designed to cut off the rogue regime from the international banking system, for defiantly pursuing nuclear and missile development. (Yonhap)
