War In Korean Peninsula? North Korea Says UN Sanctions Created ‘Imminent War’ Situation In Region

The United Nations Security Council's (UNSC) fresh sanctions on North Korea have triggered an “imminent war” situation in the Korean Peninsula, the isolated nation said Thursday. The U.N imposed sanctions following Pyongyang’s fifth nuclear test in September.

"The latest UNSC 'resolution on sanctions' has created the danger of imminent war on the Korean Peninsula, as there are no judicial and institutional mechanisms to avert a war and armed conflicts and the 'resolution' is as good as a declaration of war," North Korean foreign ministry said in a statement released on the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"The U.S. and other countries involved in adopting the 'resolution on sanctions' will have to be wholly responsible for the ensuing consequences," the statement added.

Moreover, the ministry criticized the embargo as "a criminal document without any legality" that breached the country’s sovereignty and said that September’s nuclear test was "the exercise of the right to self-defense and a practical counteraction against the U.S. and other hostile forces' nuclear threat and reckless sanctions."

The U.N. imposed sanctions on North Korea on Nov. 30 limiting the Kim Jong Un-led country’s coal exports considerably and restricted its supply of other items through which the North derives hard currency.

North Korea has conducted a series of missile tests since the beginning of this year leading to condemnation by several countries.

On Thursday, the North accused its neighbor South Korea of trying to influence Pyongyang ambassadors across the world to defect in a secretly ongoing international campaign, which the country called a “political terror” by Seoul.

"This is clearly political terror, trying to cause social chaos and bloodshed inside a sovereign state," Ju Wang Hwan, a North Korean ministry official for the Institute for Disarmament and Peace, reportedly said.