Pyongyang: North Korea on Thursday denounced the latest U.S. sanctions on Pyongyang over cybercrime-related money laundering, vowing to respond in a corresponding manner. The North's reaction came as the U.S. announced Tuesday that it had imposed sanctions on eight North Korean individuals and two entities for their involvement in laundering money stolen through illicit cyber activities.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the sanctions came even as U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed his wish to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to resume stalled diplomacy with Pyongyang. Kim Un-chol, North Korea's vice foreign minister in charge of U.S. affairs, stated that Washington's latest sanctions demonstrate its hostile policy toward the North.

"As long as the current U.S. administration has laid out its stance that it will be hostile to us to the end, we will also respond to them with patience and in a corresponding manner," read the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The North's official warned Washington should not expect its tactics of pressure, appeasement, and threats against North Korea will work.

The U.S. sanctions came as North Korea has not responded to Trump's proposal to meet with the North's leader during his latest trip to South Korea on the occasion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering. Earlier this week, the U.S. State Department also raised the need to seek U.N. sanctions on seven ships accused of illegally exporting North Korean coal and iron ore to China in violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions over the North's nuclear and missile programs.

South Korea's spy agency indicated there were signs that North Korea had been preparing for a possible meeting with the U.S. in time for last week's APEC gathering. The National Intelligence Service suggested there is a high possibility that the North and the U.S. would hold a summit sometime after an annual joint military exercise between South Korea and the U.S. in March next year.