North Korea Says Sanctions Won’t Alter Nuclear Status

On 28 October 2026 the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team—11 countries plus the European Union, including the United States, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom—issued a joint statement urging UN members to fully implement Security Council sanctions on North Korea. Those measures ban overseas North Korean labor and military cooperation with Pyongyang. The statement cited nuclear, missile and cyber activities and welcomed new U.S., Australian and EU sanctions on cyber activity and overseas worker dispatch. On 31 October, KCNA carried a Foreign Ministry spokesperson statement condemning the move. The spokesperson said, "Sanctions and pressure may work on the weak, but never on us," and that the stereotyped sanctions racket cannot influence North Korea's position as a nuclear weapons state. The statement said the isolated parties are the United States and the Western camp, that sanctions are doomed to go bankrupt, and that North Korea denounces the United States and its vassal forces' hostile policy. UN resolutions on the programs date to 2006. The prior UN expert panel ended in April 2024 after a Russian veto. Yonhap reported South Korea, Japan and U.S. foreign ministers renewed commitment to complete denuclearization.