United Nations: North Korea made a global appeal in a letter released on Friday for states to reconsider enforcing UN sanctions on the Asian nation as Washington seeks to step up pressure on Pyongyang to end its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
In the letter to 192 UN members and two observer states - dated Thursday - North Korea urged them to "reconsider any of their implementation activities until the legality of those 'sanctions resolutions' are to be clarified."
North Korea has repeatedly requested that an international forum of legal experts be established by the United Nations to clarify the legal basis for the UN sanctions.
In a press statement attached to its letter, North Korea's UN mission accused the United States of trying to intimidate countries into fully implementing UN sanctions by "openly threatening that they would be faced with 'strong measures of sanction' by the US."
North Korea argued that there would be no need for Washington to "beg or threaten" countries to implement the measures if the sanctions had a clear legal basis.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last month urged the Security Council to act before North Korea does.
North Korea also sent a rare letter of protest to the US House of Representatives on Friday warning that a new package of tougher sanctions would only spur its development of nuclear weapons, North Korea's state media reported.
Last month, North Korea reconvened the Foreign Affairs Committee, which was abolished in the late 1990s, in what analysts saw as an attempt to improve relations with the outside world amid its deepening isolation.
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