Did North Korea Feel Burdened by the New Monitoring Body?... North Korea Says "If the US Holds a Sanctions Trial, We Will Increase Our Strength"

Statement by Kim Eun-chul, Deputy Minister for the United States, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea

UN Security Council meeting held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA
[Photo by Yonhap News]

North Korea expressed strong wariness on the 25th regarding South Korea and the United States seeking a new monitoring body to replace the UN Security Council (UNSC) Panel of Experts under the Sanctions Committee on North Korea, whose activities are set to end later this month.

Kim Eun-chol, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in charge of the United States, stated in a commentary released to the Korean Central News Agency on the same day, "If the United States unfolds a new sanctions regime against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, we will seize a new opportunity necessary for the upward adjustment of power that the United States fears most."

He added, "As the illegal entity that has been engaged in monitoring the implementation of UN sanctions against Korea for over a decade faces the risk of collapse, the United States is desperately trying to fill the gap in the broken sanctions pressure structure. For us, who have lived under sanctions imposed by hostile forces for over half a century, the sanctions obsession displayed by the current US administration is by no means new," emphasizing this point.

The "illegal entity" mentioned in the commentary appears to refer to the UNSC Panel of Experts that has been monitoring the implementation of sanctions against North Korea. On the 28th of last month (local time), the termination of the UN Panel of Experts' activities at the end of this month was decided due to a veto by Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council. In response, South Korea, the United States, and Japan are considering establishing a new monitoring body.

Vice Minister Kim emphasized that such a sanctions monitoring body would act in a way that further strengthens North Korea's military capabilities.

He claimed, "Just as the United States' manipulation of new sanctions resolutions on the UN stage in the past triggered more powerful and advanced nuclear tests, the US's heinous sanctions have acted as a catalytic force spurring the gradual rise of our national power."

He continued, "It was precisely because of the US nuclear threat that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea decided to possess nuclear weapons, and it was due to the US's relentless hostile policies and sanctions pressure that we did not waver but persevered to rise to the status of a global nuclear power," he added.

Vice Minister Kim reiterated, "We will thoroughly defend our sovereign rights and security interests from the US's escalating hostile threats and sanctions pressure, and take stronger practical actions to make our already secured military-technical superiority irreversible and to enhance control over the surrounding security situation."

This is the first time in over four years since December 2019, when Ri Tae-song, Vice Minister in charge of the United States, issued a commentary, that a Vice Minister in charge of the US from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made such a statement in North Korean media. In the meantime, statements have mainly been issued under the name of the Director-General for US Affairs. This is interpreted as indicating North Korea's sensitivity to the implementation and monitoring of sanctions against it.

South Korea, the United States, and Japan are currently considering establishing a new monitoring body inside and outside the UN without the participation of Russia and China, who are negative toward sanctions on North Korea.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US Ambassador to the UN, who recently visited South Korea, emphasized the necessity of sanctions against North Korea during a press conference held on the 17th at the American Diplomacy House in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, saying, "We do not expect these countries (China and Russia) to cooperate or agree with our efforts to find other mechanisms, but we will not stop those efforts."