North Korea: New Sanctions Prove U.S. 'Inveterate Repugnancy'

North Korea has lashed out at the U.S. for the latest sanctions imposed on the hard-line regime in response to its alleged hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

In one of the colorful expressions that often emerge when official North Korean statements get translated into English, the state-run KCNA agency quotes a foreign ministry official as saying the new sanctions issued by the White House on Friday prove Washington's "inveterate repugnancy" toward Pyongyang.

"The policy persistently pursued by the US to stifle the DPRK [North Korea], groundlessly stirring up bad blood towards it, would only harden its will and resolution to defend the sovereignty of the country," the unnamed official said.

"The persistent and unilateral action taken by the White House to slap 'sanctions' against the DPRK patently proves that it is still not away from inveterate repugnancy and hostility toward the DPRK," the official was quoted as saying.

The latest sanctions follow official anger in Pyongyang over the satirical movie The Interview, with its fictitious storyline of two journalists recruited by the CIA to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The studio that produced the film was later hacked and U.S. officials have blamed North Korea.

The sanctions hit 10 North Korean government officials and three government organizations, including Pyongyang's intelligence arm and state-run arms procurement branch.