A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK made the following statement on May 14:

The United States committed an unlawful and outrageous act of forcibly taking a cargo ship of the DPRK to American Samoa, linking the ship to the "sanctions resolutions" of the United Nations Security Council and its domestic "sanctions acts".

The "sanctions resolutions" of the UNSC against the DPRK, which the US has employed as one of the grounds for its dispossession of our cargo ship, have flagrantly infringed upon the sovereignty of our State and, so, we have categorically rejected and condemned them all along.

Moreover, the impudent act of the US forcing other countries to observe its domestic law is indeed a wanton violation of the universally accepted international laws which make clear that in no case can a sovereign state be an object of jurisdiction of other countries.

The act of the US constitutes the extension of American-style calculation for bringing the DPRK to its knees by means of "maximum pressure" and an outright denial of the underlying spirit of the June 12 DPRK-US Joint Statement in which the two countries committed to establish a new bilateral relationship.

The US should ponder over the consequences its heinous act could have on the future developments and return our ship at once.

The era has already gone when the US held sway over the world at its own free will, and it would be the biggest miscalculation for the US if it thought that the DPRK belongs to the countries where the American-style logic of "strength" might work.

We will carefully watch every move of the US hereafter.