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The US must be mistaking the DPRK for Iraq or Libya. It inveigled its vassal forces to adopt UN sanctions against the country and is staging aggressive war exercises in and around the Korean peninsula by mobilizing strategic nuclear weapons. 

In the face of these harsh sanctions and nuclear threats, the socialist country neither yielded nor made any concession. It adopted tougher measures for increasing its self-defensive capability, dealing the hostile forces one heavy blow after another.

Over the last years, it has paraded its harder-line approach after declaring that the right to preemptive nuclear strike is no longer the monopoly of the US–its first H-bomb test, nuclear warhead test, the launch of ballistic rockets by the Strategic Force, re-entry simulation test of a ballistic rocket, completion of new-type large-caliber multiple rocket launch system, static firing test of a new-type high-thrust motor of an intercontinental ballistic rocket, underwater launch test of a ballistic missile from a strategic submarine, firing test of surface-to-surface intermediate-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong 10 and firing test of surface-to-surface intermediate-range strategic ballistic rocket Pukguksong 2. 

These developments explain why the DPRK announced that justice and time are on its side. 

Sanctions and nuclear threats cut no ice with our nation and we will steadily strengthen our own deterrent to turn enemy strongholds into a lake of fire – this is the unshakeable determination of the Korean people who are overflowing with feelings of hatred and retaliation.

It is worth noting that the more sanctions the US and its vassal forces resort to, the greater the might of the DPRK’s self-development is growing. 

Thanks to this might of self-development, the country is advancing by leaps and bounds to attain the status of an economic giant, remaining unperturbed by the severe international sanctions. 

Judging from the fact that the US-led forces are still obsessed with the assumption that if they expanded the scope of sanctions, the DPRK would give in and change its course, it seems that they have a poor understanding of it. 

To look back, the US has applied sanctions against the countries which get on its nerves on this or that excuse. But none of them was more severe and persistent than the ones against the DPRK. 

In the early 1950s, the US labeled the DPRK as an enemy state threatening its security and severing all economic relations with it. Since it put into force a law imposing a tenfold tariff on the DPRK’s trading partners, it has applied sanctions against this country for more than half a century. 

On the pretext that raw materials for cosmetics could be used in making chemical weapons, rice supplied to the army, and equipment for the chemical industry diverted to another purpose, the US restricted or cut off all dealings with the DPRK in civilian goods, industrial equipment, and cutting-edge technology. 

The DPRK encountered more difficulties owing to natural calamities and the world epidemics. 

Convinced that it has nothing but its own strength to rely on, the DPRK held up the banner of self-reliance and self-development. It strove to resolve everything on its own and in conformity with its people’s interests. It armed all the people with the spirit of self-reliance and built up the foundations of its independent national economy. Even in the face of harsh sanctions, it put its indigenous artificial satellite into orbit and opened up a new era of building a powerful socialist country.  

Still, now the US is egging its vassal forces on to impose severe sanctions on the DPRK, which is, in turn, building up its might of self-development in the spirit of self-reliance.

Last year, the DPRK responded to the new sanctions and war drill by the US with the declaration of the construction of 10 000 flats in Songsin, Songhwa area of Pyongyang. It has completed the huge construction project on the highest level in one year, dealing a severe blow to the hostile forces’ moves for stifling the country. Now the DPRK is in charge of the construction of 10 000 flats in the Hwaseong area of Pyongyang.

The history of the DPRK-US confrontation has already given an answer to the question of which is the winner, the US hellbent on sanctions, or the DPRK increasing its might of self-development? 

Now the DPRK has grown strong enough to threaten the security of the US. 

Failing to realize the danger of self-ruin and resorting to ineffective sanctions – this is the tragedy of modern America. 

As Winston Churchill said, the US always finds out its mistake only after making it. 

The US is well advised to find out its mistakes as soon as possible.