North Korea denounced a joint statement by a group of countries monitoring sanctions enforcement against Pyongyang as a “wanton violation of its sovereignty” born out of hostility by the US and the West, KCNA state news agency reported on Saturday.

A statement issued this week by the group that includes the US, Australia, the UK and South Korea called on UN member states to fully implement UN sanctions resolutions that ban the use of North Korean workers and military cooperation with Pyongyang.

“Sanctions and pressure may work on the weak but never on us,” KCNA reported the country’s unnamed foreign ministry spokesman as saying.

“The stereotyped sanctions racket of the US and the West can neither influence the position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state,” the spokesperson said.

UN Security Council resolutions adopted starting in 2006 are aimed at ending the North’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles programmes.

(Reporting by Jack Kim, Editing by Franklin Paul)