WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday its was pleased with the UN Security Council's latest sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), calling them "tremendously significant."
It was the strongest set of sanctions slapped on the DPRK, showing that "the world is acting together and worried and tremendously concerned about the destabilizing activities" by Pyongyang, said Heather Nauert, the spokeswoman for the state department, in a daily briefing.
The UN Security Council on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution to impose new sanctions on the DPRK over its nuclear test on Sept. 3.
The new sanctions severely restrict oil imports, and ban all of its textile exports worth 800 million U.S. dollars and remittances of some 93,000 DPRK laborers from abroad.
"These are tremendously significant," said Nauert, adding that the United States "is pleased about that (the sanctions)."
Nauert's remarks might be contradictory to the comments from U.S. President Donald Trump, who said earlier in the day that the fresh sanctions were just another "very small step, not a big deal."
"I think what the president is talking about is that more can be done," said Nauert.
"We are not at the ceiling when it comes to sanctions against the DPRK," she added.
The spokeswoman also recognized China's efforts in stabilizing the situation in Korean peninsula.
After the vote on the resolution on Monday, several ambassadors to the UN said the severity of the sanctions was designed not so much as to hurt the DPRK but help it see negotiations are only way out of the Korean Peninsula nuclear crisis.
Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi called for calm as the "situation on the Korean Peninsula remains complex and grave."
"All relevant parties must be cool-headed and avoid rhetoric or action that might aggravate tension," Liu said.
He urged the DPRK to heed the aspirations and will of the international community, abide by relevant Security Council resolutions, refrain from any more missile launches or nuclear tests, and return to the track of denuclearization.
He said that the "suspension-for-suspension" proposal and "dual-track" approach put forward by China and the idea of a step-by-step approach proposed by Russia formed a roadmap for the settlement of the issue.
The DPRK early Wednesday condemned and categorically rejected the UN Security Council resolution imposing extra sanctions over its Sept. 3 nuclear test.
The DPRK Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the UN Security Council Resolution 2375 was "fabricated by the U.S. employing all sorts of despicable and vicious means and methods."
