North Korea slams UN human rights meeting as a US 'scheme'
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The UN Security Council meets at UN headquarters in New York on Aug 17, to discuss the situation in North Korea.
PHOTO: AFP
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SEOUL – North Korea slammed a recent United Nations meeting about its human rights record, asserting the United States used the international organisation for a “scheme” against it, state media KCNA reported on Saturday.
The UN Security Council discussed human rights abuses in North Korea on Thursday, with the US Ambassador criticising leader Kim Jong Un for using “repression and cruelty” to develop nuclear weapons and missiles.
US President Joe Biden and the leaders of South Korea and Japan agreed at Camp David on Friday to deepen military and economic cooperation, growing power and nuclear threats from North Korea.
China, North Korea’s major ally, opposed the meeting of the 15-member council on abuses in North Korea, but did not try to block it.
“We will never tolerate the US and its followers’ anti-(North Korea) ‘human rights’ slander scheme, and will defend the sovereignty of the state, the socialist system and security interests,” North Korea’s KCNA quoted an unnamed spokesman for the country’s human rights think-tank as saying.
Pyongyang has long highlighted racial discrimination in the US as what it calls an example of Washington’s hypocrisy.
North Korea said on Wednesday an American soldier, Pte Travis King, who crossed into North Korea in July, had fled racism and abuse in America. REUTERS
