North Korea has warned that the countries that joined the U.S. to form a new committee to monitor DPRK sanctions “will pay a dear price,” with one expert stating that Pyongyang might block the return of U.K. and Germany’s embassy staff to the DPRK. 

The U.S., South Korea, Japan and eight Western nations launched the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) last week, a new mechanism to monitor North Korea sanctions violations following the dissolution of the U.N. Panel of Experts earlier this year.

In response, DPRK foreign minister Choe Son Hui said in a statementon Sunday that North Korea