DPRK Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui on October 19 made public the following press statement titled "The countries involved in imposing illegal and outrageous sanctions on the DPRK will have to pay dearly":

Contrary to the recognized principles of international law with equality in sovereignty and noninterference in other’s internal affairs as their core, the US and its vassal countries are working hard to revive the structure of sanctions and pressure against the DPRK, which went bankrupt structurally and is on the verge of collapse.

The "multilateral sanctions monitoring team," which allegedly replaces the panel of experts that withered after having been involved in monitoring the implementation of the UN "sanctions resolutions" for more than 10 years, is utterly unlawful and illegitimate in terms of justification for existence and purpose, and its existence itself constitutes a denial of the UN Charter.

I express serious concern and regret over the US habitual misconduct of arbitrarily flouting the international order in pursuit of its hegemonic interests, and vehemently condemn and reject it as a challenge to international justice and the most undisguised violation of the DPRK's sovereignty.

The US-led sanctions against the DPRK are by no means a new experience for us.

However, the unilateral behaviour of the US, obsessed with the suicidal concept of pressure without sound thinking and sense of reality, and of some countries blindly following it has emerged as a threatening entity shaking the international relations to their foundations and seriously polluting the world security environment.

The emergence of another hostile threatening factor calls for ceaselessly adding new factors to the corresponding counteraction force for deterring it.

Wrong practice is bound to elicit an indispensable reaction and suffer corresponding punishment.

If the US expected that it can surprise the DPRK and stop its advance with such worn-out means as sanctions and pressure, it is just a fatal misjudgement.

As clarified by the President of the State Affairs of the DPRK, the pain the US has inflicted on our people has provoked a towering rage towards the US and this has become a decisive factor and a strategic opportunity for redoubling our strength.

If the US seeks to control the world by dint of high-handed and arbitrary practices, self-righteousness and prejudice, more countries will become interested in putting an end to the American-style hegemony and it will bring earlier the emergence of the global anti-US solidarity structure.

The DPRK remains steadfast in its will to safeguard its sovereign rights, development and interests, regional and global peace and security to cope with the ever more undisguised, sinister and hostile scheme of the US and its satellite countries.

I take this opportunity to recall the criminal act of the ROK which violated the sovereignty and territory of the DPRK and caused the current mishap, and make it clear that the US will be held accountable for it.

We will correctly remember the US and the ROK, which have taken the lead in illegal and outrageous sanctions and pressure against the DPRK, and Japan, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, which actively joined them, and record all their hostile acts.

The forces involved in the smear campaign against the DPRK will have to pay dearly for it.

KCNA