North Korea's mission to the United Nations rejected the latest U.N. sanctions on the communist nation as "discriminatory" and "unfair," repeating the country's long-running claims that its nuclear program is for self-defense.

"We do not recognize this discriminatory, double-standard, unilateral and unfair resolution," a North Korean diplomat said at the U.N. headquarters after the Security Council adopted Resolution 2321 with a focus on choking off the North's revenue sources to punish the regime for its fifth nuclear test in September.

"Our position is clear and consistent," the North's diplomat said. "There is a root cause for the Korean Peninsula problem ... This resolution is not designed to address the root cause."

The North has long blamed what it calls the U.S. "hostile policy" as the root cause behind its nuclear program.

"All our actions are for self-defense and are related to survival," the North's diplomat said, claiming that the country is only trying to defend itself, not threaten others.

The latest sanctions center on putting a significant cap on North Korea's exports of coal, its single biggest export item and source of hard currency, while banning exports of four additional minerals and slapping other restrictions aimed at drying up the North's revenue sources.

The measures, if fully enforced, would strip the communist nation of at least $800 million in annual revenues, a sizable sum that accounts for more than a quarter of the impoverished nation's total exports, estimated at about $3 billion. (Yonhap)