NK criticizes the US and other countries for seeking alternatives to the UN sanctions monitoring panel

North Korea’s UN Ambassador Kim Song addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, September 26, 2023. AP-Yonhap

North Korea on Sunday blasted the United States and other countries for seeking an alternative to the United Nations monitoring panel that imposed sanctions on Pyongyang, saying such a move would be doomed to “self-destruction.”

North Korean Ambassador to the UN Kim Song issued a statement condemning Seoul, Washington, Tokyo and 47 other countries for jointly calling for an “objective” and “independent” analysis regarding the enforcement of anti-North Korean sanctions as the panel of experts’ mandate ended last month due to Russia’s veto on its extension.

During a trip to Seoul in April, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the US will work with South Korea to explore “creative” and “out of the box” ways to find an alternative to the panel experts, even outside the UN. system.

The North Korean envoy said the end of the monitoring panel is a “judgment of history on an illegal, conspiracy-mongering organization” and called the panel of experts a tool for the US and other Western countries to “enhance the rights of a sovereign capable of extermination’. into existence.”

“The hostile forces may establish the second and third panels of experts in the future, but over time they will all face self-destruction,” he said in the statement carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency.

“If the US and its minions persist in pursuing anachronistic hostile policies towards the DPRK, instead of learning a lesson from the recent case, they will face a more miserable strategic defeat,” he warned, using the acronym official name of North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. (Yonhap)