N. Korea: U.S. Has Declared War

A top North Korean diplomat said on Thursday that the U.S. has “crossed the red line” and declared war against the country by placing the country’s leader Kim Jong Un on a list of sanctioned individuals in connection with alleged human rights abuses in the authoritarian state. Han Song Ryol, the top diplomat in charge of U.S. affairs at the North’s Foreign Ministry, said, “The Obama administration went so far to have the impudence to challenge the supreme dignity of [the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea].” He added, “The United States has crossed the red line in our showdown. We regard this thrice-cursed crime as a declaration of war.” North Korea, as a nation, has been sanctioned several times for its nuclear weapons, but Kim Jong Un had not been personally sanctioned before the U.S. announced this new measure on July 6.