UNO: On Tuesday, North Korea criticised US-led proposals for a public Security Council meeting on its human rights record, calling them "despicable" and only intended to advance Washington's geopolitical objectives.
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong described the United States as a "declining" power and asserted that if the UN Human Rights Council discussed any nation's human rights, it should start with the US because "it is the anti-people empire of evils, totally depraved due to all sorts of social evils."
The discussion on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, also known as North Korea, is scheduled to take place on Thursday. The United States, which is currently holding the Security Council presidency, made this decision.
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The DPRK rights issue will be discussed at the first open council meeting since 2017. Last week, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield informed media that council members would be briefed by Volker Türk, the UN's independent investigator on human rights in the secretive nation of northeast Asia, and Elizabeth Salmon.
The North Korean regime of Kim Jong Il "must address the horrors, the abuses and crimes being committed" against its own people as well as the people of Japan and South Korea, according to the Security Council. When making the announcement, Thomas-Greenfield was flanked by the ambassadors from Albania, Japan, and South Korea.
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In response to Kim Son Gyong's comments, Nate Evans, the spokesperson for the US Mission to the UN, reiterated that North Korea's ongoing abuses of human rights "go against the very principles of the UN Charter and are directly linked to Pyongyang's unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes."
Evans said in a statement to The Associated Press that "North Koreans are suffering while the DPRK regime diverts a large share of its budget and resources to weapons development."
Since vetoing a US-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over the North's spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches, Russia and China, which have close ties to North Korea, have prevented any Security Council action. As a result, there is no expectation that the council will take any action on Thursday.
Although the US has stated that the meeting will go ahead despite possible objections from China and Russia, holding an open meeting is something that needs the support of at least nine of the 15 council members.
Vice Minister of International Organisations for the DPRK, Kim, urged nations "blindly following the US" to "behave themselves properly." The real US intention, he continued, "has nothing to do with the universal conception of human rights protection and it is only for realising its narrow-minded and hegemonic geopolitical purpose," urging all council members to "take a correct stand and attitude."
The North will "resolutely counter any hostile act of the US threatening peace and security on the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world," Kim further warned. North Korea will also "absolutely defend the sovereignty of the state, the supreme human rights, and the interests of the popular masses."