N. KOREA SLAMS US, OTHER COUNTRIES FOR SEEKING SUCCESSOR TO UN SANCTIONS MONITORING PANEL

ANKARA, May 5 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- An irate North Korea on Sunday decried the United States and other countries for seeking a successor to the defunct United Nations monitoring panel that enforced sanctions against Pyongyang, warning that such an attempt is doomed to self-destruction, reported Anadolu Agency.

The North Korean ambassador to the UN, Kim Song, in a statement condemned archrival South Korea, Japan, the US, and 47 other countries for jointly calling for an objective and independent analysis of the enforcement of the sanctions on his country.

The mandate of the panel of experts ended last month due to Russia vetoing its renewal. Washington last month said it would work with Seoul to explore creative and out-of-the-box ways to find an alternative to the panel, including outside of the UN system.

In a statement carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, the North Korean envoy said the end of the monitoring panel is a judgment made by history on an illegal, plot-breeding organisation and called the panel a tool for the US and other Western countries to stamp out a sovereign state's right to existence.

"The hostile forces may set up second and third expert panels in the future, but they are all bound to meet self-destruction with time.

"If the US and its followers persistently pursue the anachronistic hostile policy towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, instead of drawing a lesson from the recent case, they will face a more miserable strategic defeat." 

-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU