Pyongyang’s Korea Central News Agency revealed a 1,300-word statement under the byline of spokesperson of National Defense Committee (NDC) on Sunday, in which they condemned the international sanctions they face as inhumane and vowed to overcome them.

About a month after the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 2270, the statement argued that sanctions cannot undermine the nation’s economy, calling them “as familiar as air” for North Koreans.

The type of statement the NDC spokesperson released, a damhwa (“discourse”) is the third most important type that can come out of Pyongyang, following the more official NDC seongmyeon (literally “statement”) and the “NDC spokesperson’s