Kuwait has downgraded its diplomatic relations with North Korea in concert with new UN sanctions against Pyongyang following the DPRK’s sixth and largest-ever nuclear test of a hydrogen bomb.
The United States called on member nations of the United Nations Security Council to sever financial and diplomatic relations with North Korea as part of tightening sanctions against Pyongyang.
A North Korean diplomat in the Gulf region told Reuters on Sunday that Ambassador So Chang Sik will leave Kuwait in response to a request by the government.
The move reduces relations between the two nations to representation at the level of charges d’affairs.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said Sunday in an interview with CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ that North Korea will be “destroyed” if it continues its “reckless” behavior. She added that the UN Security Council has basically exhausted its diplomatic options for dealing with Pyongyang.
If diplomacy fails, she said, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattes “will take care of it.”