North Korea won't demand sanctions lift

Pyongyang does not plan to insist on lifting sanctions against North Korea in the future, but is ready to respond decisively to provocations from the United States and its allies to protect its sovereign rights, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said.

"We are not going to focus on lifting sanctions, but we will not allow provocations from the United States and its satellites and will take strong and decisive countermeasures," the head of the DPRK Foreign Ministry's foreign policy department said in a statement published by the Korean Central News Agency on Monday.

According to him, North Korea "no longer needs the easing of sanctions," which allowed the country "to find ways to survive, independently develop and strengthen itself in a tough external environment," and also became a factor contributing to the "accelerated accumulation of a powerful force that no one can ignore."

The ministry recalled the recent meeting of the monitoring committee of the multilateral sanctions monitoring group, held in Washington, where measures to respond "to nuclear and missile threats from the DPRK" were discussed.

"Illegal and hostile sanctions against the DPRK will only accelerate our retaliatory actions aimed at protecting sovereign rights, and those who engage in these hostile actions will certainly bear a heavy price," the statement emphasized.

It was previously reported that Seoul did not expect a defense agreement to be signed between Russia and the DPRK.

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