On 24 December 2017, the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that the resolution "is tantamount to complete economic blockade of the DPRK".[1] The statement defined the resolution "as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty" of North Korea and "an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region".[1] According to the statement, the nuclear weapons serve "self-defensive deterrence that does not contradict any international law" since they were developed "in a fair and legitimate way outside of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in order to put an end to the hostile policy and nuclear threats and blackmail of the U.S."[1]