North Korea Slams US, 'Other Countries' For Seeking Successor To UN Sanctions Monitoring Panel

An irate North Korea on Sunday decried US and "other countries" for seeking a successor to the defunct UN monitoring panel that enforced sanctions against Pyongyang, warning that such an attempt is doomed to "self-destruction."

In a statement, North Korean Ambassador to the UN Kim Song condemned archrival South Korea, Japan, US, and 47 other countries for jointly calling for "objective" and "independent" analysis of the enforcement of the sanctions on his country.

The mandate of the panel of experts ended last month due to Russia vetoing its renewal. Washington last month said it will work with Seoul to explore "creative" and "out-of-the-box" ways to find an alternative to the expert panel, even outside of the UN system.

In a statement carried by the North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, the North Korean envoy said that the end of the monitoring panel is a "judgment made by history on an illegal, plot-breeding organization" and called the panel a tool for the US and other Western countries to "stamp out a sovereign state's right to existence."

"The hostile forces may set up second and third expert panels in the future, but they are all bound to meet self-destruction with the passage of time," he further said.

"If the US and its followers persistently pursue the anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK (North Korea), instead of drawing a lesson from the recent case, they will face a more miserable strategic defeat," he warned. -