Seoul, June 2
North Korea on Monday denounced a monitoring group on the enforcement of UN sanctions against Pyongyang for issuing a report on military cooperation between the North and Russia, calling the move a violation of a state's sovereign rights.
The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) on Thursday issued the first report detailing illegal military cooperation carried out between North Korea and Russia in violation of UN Security Council resolutions against Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes.
The chief of the external policy office at North Korea's foreign ministry said the MSMT committed a "political provocation" by fabricating a report taking issue with cooperative ties between the North and Russia, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Calling the MSMT a "bogus group which has no legality in terms of existence and purpose," the official said the report is a "wanton" violation of international legal principles centering on sovereignty equality and non-interference in others' internal affairs.
"We give stern warning against the negative consequences to be entailed by its reckless acts," the North's official said in a statement carried by the KCNA.
North Korea said the MSMT is a "political tool" operating in line with the West's geopolitical interests, stressing, "It has no justification to investigate the exercise of sovereign rights of other countries," according to the KCNA.