[15] In response, a statement from the Foreign Ministry, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), said that the country would "weaponize all plutonium" and had reprocessed more than "one-third of our spent nuclear fuel rods".

[16] The statement considered any attempt at a blockade as an "act of war that will be met with a decisive military response", and would "counter 'sanctions' with retaliation and 'confrontation' with all-out confrontation", accusing the resolution of being a product of a U.S.-led offensive against the country.

[18][19] The North Korean Foreign Ministry statement on KCNA continues: The U.S. and Japan, not content with this "resolution", are hatching dirty plots to add their own "sanctions" to the existing ones against the DPRK by framing up the fictional issues of "counterfeit money" and "drug trafficking".

The U.S. incited the United Nations Security Council to get more deeply embroiled in its attempt to stifle the DPRK, which resulted in the creation of an unprecedentedly acute tension on the Korean Peninsula.

Secretary of the Central Committee Workers' Party of Korea Kim Ki Nam blamed the United States for pushing through the sanctions, adding that they would not weaken the DPRK.

[45] The Congressional Research Service report identifies the Pyongyang–Tehran air route as a matter of concern, as most of the US$1.5 billion North Korea earns in weapons sales comes from Iran.