North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui has denounced the launch of a multinational team to monitor UN sanctions on the country.
Choe made the announcement on Sunday through the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
The minister said such a mechanism is “utterly unlawful and illegitimate in terms of its justification for existence and purpose, and its existence itself constitutes a denial of the UN Charter.”
The launch of the monitoring team involving Japan, the US, South Korea and eight other countries was announced on Wednesday. It comes after a motion to extend the mandate of a UN Security Council expert panel to monitor sanctions was vetoed by Russia, forcing it to cease its activities at the end of April.
The North Korean minister named all eleven countries taking part in the mechanism, and warned that “the forces involved in the smear campaign will have to “pay a dear price for it.”
In reference to the North’s claim that South Korean drones scattered propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang earlier this month, Choe said the US will be held accountable for the South’s “criminal act.”