The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned new U.S. sanctions imposed on Pyongyang after Washington concluded that North Korea had used the chemical warfare agent VX to kill the half-brother of leader Kim Jong Un in Malaysia in 2017.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the ministry, said any sanctions which were imposed unilaterally and not under the auspices of the United Nations were illegitimate.
"We proceed from the fact that the sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, particularly with regard to North Korea, are legitimate," Zakharova said.
"Other sanctions, which despite being tied to and motivated by the situation on the Korean peninsula and being additionally imposed, bypass the UN Security Council, and are from our point of view not legitimate," the spokeswoman added.
The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it had imposed the new sanctions on Pyongyang.
