Pyongyang, October 20 (KCNA) -- DPRK Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui on October 19 made public the following press statement titled "The countries involved in imposing illegal and outrageous sanctions on the DPRK will have to pay a dear price":

Contrary to the recognized principles of international law with sovereignty equality and noninterference in internal affairs as their core, the U.S. and its vassal countries are working hard to revive the structure of sanctions and pressure on the DPRK, which went bankrupt structurally and is on the verge of collapse.

The "multilateral sanctions monitoring team," which allegedly acts on behalf of the panel of experts, a has-been involved in monitoring the implementation of the UN "sanctions resolutions" for more than 10 years, is utterly unlawful and illegitimate in terms of its justification for existence and purpose, and its existence itself constitutes a denial of the UN Charter.

I express serious concern and regret at the U.S. habitual misconduct of arbitrarily flouting the international order in pursuit of its hegemonic interests, and vehemently condemn and reject it as a challenge to international justice and the most undisguised violation of the DPRK's sovereignty.

The U.S.-led sanctions against the DPRK are by no means a new experience for us.

However, the unilateral behavior of the U.S., obsessed with the suicidal concept of pressure without sound thinking and sense of reality, and of some countries blindly following it has emerged as a threatening entity shaking the international relations to their foundations and seriously polluting the world security environment.

The emergence of another hostile threatening factor calls for ceaselessly adding new factors to the corresponding counteraction force for deterring it.

Wrong practice is bound to entail an inevitable reaction and corresponding punishment.

If the U.S. expected that it can surprise the DPRK and stop its advance with such worn-out means as sanctions and pressure, it is just a fatal misjudgment.

As clarified by the president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, the pain the U.S. has inflicted on our people has provoked a towering rage towards the U.S. and this has become a decisive factor and a strategic opportunity for redoubling our strength.

If the U.S. seeks to control the world by dint of high-handed and arbitrary practices, self-righteousness and prejudice, more countries will become interested in putting an end to the American-style hegemony and it will bring earlier the emergence of the anti-U.S. global solidarity structure.

The DPRK remains steadfast in its will to safeguard its sovereign rights, development and interests, regional and global peace and security to cope with the ever more undisguised sinister and hostile scheme of the U.S. and its satellite countries.

I take this opportunity to recall the criminal act of the ROK which violated the sovereignty and territory of the DPRK and caused the current mishap, and make it clear that the U.S. will be held accountable for it.

We will correctly remember the U.S. and the ROK, which have taken the lead in illegal and outrageous sanctions and pressure on the DPRK, and Japan, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, which actively joined it, and record all their hostile acts.

The forces involved in the smear campaign against the DPRK will have to pay a dear price for it. -0-