SEOUL, South Korea >> North Korean leader Kim Jong Un lobbed a string of insults at President Donald Trump on Friday, calling him a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” and hinting at a frightening new weapon test. Yet in early September, after North Korea conducted its sixth and biggest-ever nuclear test, it called the prospect of a full oil embargo “rash and extreme.”

“If China completely cuts off the supply of oil to North Korea or even closes the China-North Korea border, it is uncertain whether we can deter Pyongyang from conducting further nuclear tests and missile launches,” it said. The new restrictions follow the United Nations Security Council's agreement on new sanctions on Sept. 11, as NPR's Richard Gonzales outlined:



"The new sanctions set a cap on crude and refined oil exports to North Korea at 8.5 million barrels per year, which represents a 30 percent reduction, according to U.S. officials. Kim’s statement was in response to Trump’s combative speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday in which he mocked Kim as “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission” and said that if “forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”

Kim said Trump’s remarks “have convinced me, rather than frightening or stopping me, that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last.” He also said he would “tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.”

Hours before Kim’s statement, Trump announced stiffer new sanctions on North Korea as he met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in New York. To comply with a UN Security Council resolution calling for sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear activity, China said Friday that it will limit its exports of refined petroleum products to Pyongyang as well as ban imports of the North’s textiles.
China limits petroleum exports and bans imports of textiles from North Korea as part of new sanctions following the latest nuclear test.