North Korea issues message for incoming U.S. president

SEOUL, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A North Korean newspaper addressed the incoming U.S. administration on Thursday, stating Washington must deal with Pyongyang as a nuclear weapons state.

An editorial in Pyongyang's Workers' Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun stated a "United States that hopes for a denuclearized North Korea is living on a delusion of the old era."

In a statement that appeared to address Republican President-elect Donald Trump, Pyongyang touted its nuclear weapons and slammed the policy of economic sanctions as a "choking-off scheme that cannot evade failure."

"The wretched fate of those in power in the United States, who are in a frenzy about crushing to death [North Korea] by sanctions, substantiates the hollow claims of their effectiveness," North Korea said in its statement.

North Korea is under heavy sanctions, including embargoes that were adopted at the United Nations Security Council in March, in response to its fourth nuclear test in January.

Pyongyang also conducted a fifth nuclear test in September, and a sanctions resolution is under negotiation at the Security Council.

In its statement issued on Thursday North Korea suggested the unilateral sanctions policy of President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama were failures.

North Korea compared the policy failures to a growing snowball that is now directly linked to the "survival of the United States."

Pyongyang also said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's statement on North Korea's nuclear weapons was an "important warning" for the incoming administration.

In October Clapper had said the "notion of getting the North Koreans to denuclearize is probably a lost cause" while replying to a question regarding the role negotiations or diplomacy may play in incentivizing North Korea to give up weapons.