North Korea threatens ‘resolute’ action against multilateral sanctions monitoring group

The North’s threat came as the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), established by Seoul and 10 other countries in October, pledged to ensure the full implementation of UN sanctions against North Korea at the inaugural meeting of its steering committee last week.

Calling the MSMT an “illegal and criminal ghost group,” the chief of the external policy office at North Korea’s Foreign Ministry warned that hostile forces will have to “pay a steep price” for their attempt to block North Korea from exercising its sovereign rights, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

“The DPRK will never thirst for a lifting of sanctions but will never overlook the provocations of the U.S. and its followers to encroach upon the legitimate sovereignty of the DPRK under the pretext of implementing sanctions and strongly counter them with resolute actions,” the official said, referring to the North with the acronym for its official name.

“Sanctions waiver through negotiations is not a matter of concern from long ago for the DPRK, which has no sanctions to be canceled and to be added, and it is not on the agenda of the DPRK,” the official noted.

With Seoul’s initiative, the 11 countries, including the United States and Japan, established the MSMT last October to continue the sanctions monitoring against North Korea following the disbandment of the UN monitoring panel in April last year due to a Russian veto.