North Korea protests US sanctions... “If you take a confrontational stance, you react more strongly.”

In response to the U.S. announcing new sanctions against North Korea due to successive ballistic missile launches, North Korea said, "If we take a confrontational stance like this, we will have to respond more strongly and clearly."

He also criticized, "The US questioning our legitimate exercise of self-defence is an obvious provocation and robbery logic."

Earlier, on the 12th, the United States imposed sanctions on five personnel from the Academy of Defense Science, a key institution in North Korea's missile development.