SEOUL, Jan 12 (Reuters) – North Korea has lashed out at a special sanctions monitoring team composed of multiple countries, calling its activities “illegal” and irrelevant to the United Nations, state media KCNA reported on Monday.
The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, composed of 11 countries including South Korea and the United States, is aimed at monitoring and reporting Pyongyang’s violations and evasions of sanctions imposed by United Nations Security Council Resolutions.
A press statement by North Korea’s permanent mission to the United Nations said that the United States was planning to hold a briefing session at U.N. headquarters, KCNA reported.
It said the body was “recklessly formed” outside the U.N. system and could not be recognised by the international community.
The mechanism under the new team was introduced after Russia in 2024 rejected the annual renewal of a U.N. panel of experts that had over the past 15 years overseen the implementation of sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. China abstained from the vote.
In October 2025, the team issued a report on “deep connections” between U.N.-designated North Korean entities and Pyongyang’s malicious cyber activities.
The allegation on North Korea’s cyber threats is “a fabricated story based on imagination,” KCNA cited the press statement as saying.
(Reporting by Heejin KimEditing by Ed Davies)
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