North Korean Foreign Minister Choi Son-hui said on Sunday that countries that decided to join the new mechanism led by Seoul, Tokyo and Washington monitor compliance with sanctions against Pyongyang They will pay a high priceby calling the organization “illegal and illegitimate”.
This is what the foreign minister said in a statement published today by the official KCNA news agency, after the creation of the new body was announced on Thursday as a measure to compensate for the abolition in April of the group of UN experts which fulfilled this function. .
Choi said the new body was “illegal and illegitimate” and that “contravenes the Charter of the United Nations”according to the KCNA press release.
“The forces involved in the smear campaign against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the official name of North Korea) will have to pay a high price,” added the chancellor, who also criticized the United States for the prosecution of their “hegemonic interests”. . ” “.
The new watchdog, which also includes France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, is expected to monitor and report violations of successive rounds of sanctions of imposed since 2006 to prevent Pyongyang from progressing. on its weapons of mass destruction programs.
However, the secret regime allegedly supplied prohibited materials and components through methods such as ship-to-ship transfers, and with the collaboration or approval of China and Russia.
The new body, called the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), comes seven months after Moscow vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at extending the operation of the UN group tasked with monitoring the implementation of sanctions against North Korea.
