Doha: North Korea threatened Monday to take "resolute" action after a South Korea-led monitoring group implementing UN sanctions against the North over its nuclear and missile programs has launched official activities.
According to Qatar News Agency, the North's threat came as the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), established by South Korea 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 the exercising of North Korea's sovereign rights, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
"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 Russia's veto.