Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- The director of Policy Research of the Institute for American Studies of the DPRK Foreign Ministry Thursday released the following press statement:

On February 23, the Trump group announced that the United States would enforce sanctions against 56 designations in total - 27 shipping and trading companies, 28 vessels and 1 individual - of the DPRK and other countries combined, under the pretext of prohibiting so-called sanctions evasion practices and illegal means used to facilitate ship-to-ship transfer of coal and fuel, and it ridiculously trumpeted that this would be "the largest sanctions ever imposed on the DPRK".

The anti-DPRK sanctions and pressure by the Trump group can be described as "harshest" ever seen in history in light of its vicious and reactionary nature.

The frequency of sanctions and the non-exhaustive list of sanctions designations speak themselves.

According to the initial estimation, the Trump group, since in office, announced sanctions 12 times through Treasury Department and State Department targeting 65 individuals, 56 entities and 45 vessels of the DPRK, and 32 entities, 12 individuals and 9 vessels of other countries allegedly involved in transactions with the DPRK; 219 designations in total.

Compared with previous U.S. administrations, the Obama administration announced 217 sanctions designations on 28 occasions during 8 years in office, and the Bush administration 11 designations on 2 occasions during 8 years in office.

The U.S. secretary of Treasury has gone so mad at imposing "sanctions" on our country that he even boasted recently that half of over 450 rounds of sanctions enforced against Pyongyang since 2005 were enacted last year.

The vicious nature of sanctions is vividly manifested in an indiscriminate expansion of its scope.

On February 18, 2016, the Obama administration cooked up "North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act 2016" and, under the pretext of cutting off flow of revenue for program of nuclear weapons and rockets, sanctioned entities of our Party and power authority and enforced the ban on our normal economic and trading transactions in the areas of, inter alia, earth and stone, transportation, mining, energy and finance, driven by the preposterous fabrications about sort of development and proliferation of WMD, cyber-attack, human rights abuse, drug trafficking, counterfeiting and money laundering. It even sanctioned the entities and individuals of other countries involved in transactions with the DPRK.

However, the Trump administration, not satisfied with the above, unveiled "Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act" on August 2, 2017 and thus, openly exposed its heinous intention to expand the scope of sanctions to all legitimate areas of economy and trade, aimed at completely cutting off source of revenue in foreign currency and stifling us economically.

These facts clearly exhibit the magnitude and height of the Trump group's desperate attempt to isolate and stifle us economically and to disintegrate our socialist system chosen by our people.

The international society has now again eye-witnessed the viciousness and unfairness of sanctions pursued by the Trump group.

The unilateral sanctions imposed by the Trump group, pursuant to its domestic law, upon the DPRK and other countries involved in transactions with the former constitute a wanton infringement upon sovereignty and an open violation of the universally recognized international laws which underline that in no case can a sovereign state be an object of jurisdiction of other countries.

Referring to the latest "unilateral sanctions" announced by the Trump group, the neighboring countries including China and Russia and even the American press are expressing increased apprehension and denunciation, arguing that the Trump group is again driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war by resorting to sanctions and pressure, without having clear strategy on the DPRK.

Trump is attempting to frighten us by making wild remarks that if the latest sanctions, the core of which is to completely block the DPRK's maritime transactions with other countries, do not work, "very rough phase 2" will be operated. But such wild remarks of the Trump group would not work on us, and we have prepared our own formula to counter it.

It is really miserable to see that the Trump group clings frenziedly to the sanctions and pressure, still harboring an illusion that they would work on us. The U.S. should bear in mind that if America becomes more desperate, it will only make stronger our faith and determination to rise high on the strength of self-development.

The U.S. should be well advised to squarely look at the strategic position of our state with their eyes wide-open and contemplate now what will be a strategic and wise choice to better serve the America's interests. -0-