North Korea has denounced the inaugural meeting of a new multilateral initiative that seeks to ensure stronger enforcement of sanctions against the DPRK, while declaring that it no longer seeks waivers on “anachronistic” sanctions that it views as a violation of its sovereign rights.

In a statement issued through the state-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday, the head of the DPRK foreign ministry’s External Policy Office condemned last week’s Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) meeting in Washington as a “confab” of “an illegal and criminal ghost group” that harms, rather than promotes, international peace and security.