SEOUL, Feb 24, (Xinhua): The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has condemned 11 countries for convening a meeting on the implementation of UN sanctions against Pyongyang, the DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency reported on Monday, citing an official. The inaugural meeting of the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) "may bring about serious backfire hard for them to deal with," the chief of the External Policy Office of DPRK's Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying on Sunday.

The MSMT meeting talked about strengthening the implementation of UN sanctions to cope with the nuclear and missile "threats" of the DPRK. The MSMT, formed by countries that are only doing harmful things, "is nothing but an illegal, illegitimate and criminal ghost group in terms of the reason of its existence and purpose," said the official.

Sanctions waiver through negotiations has long ceased to be a concern for the DPRK and is not part of its agenda, said the official. "However, it will never overlook any provocations of the United States and its followers to encroach upon the legitimate sovereign rights of the DPRK under the pretext of implementing sanctions, but strongly counter them with resolute actions."

According to the US State Department, the governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States held the MSMT steering committee inaugural meeting in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. The MSMT, established in October 2024, is to assist with the full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions on the DPRK, said the U.S. State Department in a statement.