North Korea vows new nuclear tests and threatens U.S.

North Korea sent a threatening statement to the world on Thursday, promising new nuclear tests and directly mentioning the U.S. as the “sworn enemy” to its people.

“Settling accounts with the U.S. needs to be done with force, not with words as it regards jungle law as the rule of its survival,” the statement from the country’s National Defense Commission read, reports ABC News.

The message comes in response to new sanctions placed on the North Korea by the U.S. and the international community following its December rocket tests. Its untested new leader, Kim Jong-Un, and the government claimed at the time that those tests were part of a space program, but today’s statement made the government’s intentions clear.

According to The New York Times, the statement said that “a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the D.P.R.K. one after another and a nuclear test of higher level which will be carried out by it” will be “targeted” at the U.S. The statement refers to the U.S. as the “the sworn enemy of the Korean people.”

This news is likely a disappointment to observers who hoped that Kim Jong-Un would be different than his late father, Kim Jong-il. While he has made some economic reforms, a statement like this proves that he will continue following in his father’s footsteps. It also comes just days after the beginning of President Obama’s second term and the election of South Korea’s new president, Park Geun-hye.

North Korea didn’t say exactly when this test will occur. “We hope they don't do it. We call on them not to do it,” Glyn Davies, the U.S. envoy in the region, said on Thursday.