“We define this ‘sanctions resolution’ rigged up by the US and its followers as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of our Republic, as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region and categorically reject the resolution," a foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement Sunday, as cited by state news agency KCNA.

On Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously imposed a new round of sanctions on North Korea following its latest ballistic missile test launch on November 29. Pyongyang is already under an extremely harsh economic sanctions regime, but the latest round further slashed its refined petroleum product imports and banned all remaining major exports. The measure also demands the repatriation of all North Koreans working abroad within 24 months.

The fresh sanctions are “tantamount to [a] complete economic blockade of the DPRK,” the ministry fumed, pointing out that “those countries that raised their hands in favor of this ‘sanctions resolution’ shall be held completely responsible for all the consequences to be caused by the ‘resolution’ and we will make sure for ever and ever that they pay [a] heavy price for what they have done.”

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