North Korea's top diplomat for US affairs has said Washington "crossed the red line" and effectively declared war by putting leader Kim Jong Un on its list of sanctioned individuals.
Han Song Ryol dismissed calls for Pyongyang to defuse tensions by agreeing to abandon its nuclear program, saying they are needed to "neutralize the nuclear blackmail of the United States."
"In the view of cause and effect, it is the US that provided the cause of our possession of nuclear forces," he told Associated Press.
"We never hide the fact, and we are very proud of the fact, that we have very strong nuclear deterrent forces not only to cope with the United States' nuclear blackmail but also to neutralize the nuclear blackmail of the United States."