North Korea has vowed to redouble efforts to acquire nuclear weapons that can strike the US mainland, a day after the UN agreed its strongest sanctions yet on the rogue regime following its sixth nuclear test. 

The foreign ministry in Pyongyang on Wednesday derided the latest UN resolution as a “product of heinous provocation” that infringed on North Korea’s right to self-defence, adding that the country’s nuclear push “was absolutely right”.

“The DPRK will redouble the efforts to increase its strength to safeguard the country’s sovereignty and right to existence and to preserve peace and security of the region by establishing the practical equilibrium with the US,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency. The DPRK is North Korea’s official name that stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.