Pyongyang, October 1 (KCNA) -- Belorussian Foreign Minister Sergei Nikolayevich Martinov, in a speech at the UNGA session on Sept. 17 denounced the West for its sanctions against his country.

He condemned the West for applying collective sanctions to block the independent choice and development of Belarus. Any sanctions and any threat and blackmail will not change the stand of Belarus, he stressed.

He expressed concern over the fact that there continue the phenomena trampling down with force the rights of the states to choose their road of development. He called for taking international legal steps to prevent such practices.