SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s foreign minister said a new multilateral sanctions monitoring team led by the United States was “utterly unlawful and illegitimate,” state media said Sunday.

The United States, South Korea and Japan on Wednesday announced the launch of a new multinational team to monitor the enforcement of sanctions against North Korea after Russia and China thwarted monitoring activities at the United Nations.

The team was introduced after Russia in March 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.

“The forces involved in the smear campaign against the DPRK will have to pay a dear price for it,” Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said via state news agency KCNA, using the country’s official name.

Choe criticized the team, which would be joined by eight other countries, as Washington’s misconduct of flouting the international order and as “the most undisguised violation” of North Korea’s sovereignty.

Washington and Seoul have warned of North Korea’s close military ties with Moscow. South Korea’s spy agency said Friday that North Korea has shipped 1,500 special forces troops to Russia’s Far East for training and acclimatizing at local military bases and will likely be deployed for combat in the war in Ukraine.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he could not confirm reports that North Korea has sent troops to Russia ahead of what could be a deployment to Ukraine, but added such a move would be concerning, if true. 
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