A senior North Korean official used a regional security forum in Beijing on Thursday to call for Washington to “immediately lift” US-led sanctions against Pyongyang, describing them as “confidence-destroying measures” harming the denuclearisation process, SCMP reported.

“[The US should] immediately lift the sanctions and the hindrance to confidence-building. Those countries joining the UN sanctions against [North Korea] should pay attention to the positive developments on the Korean peninsula,” Song Il-hyok, deputy director general of the North Korean foreign ministry’s Institute for Disarmament and Peace, told the Xiangshan Forum.

“We think that sanctions and pressure do more harm than good – they are … confidence-destroying measures.”