North Korea, a country widely condemned for egregious rights violations, issued its own report on Saturday on the state of human rights in the country, disputing outside criticism and suggesting that accusations of abuses are politically motivated.
The “all-inclusive,” five-chapter report was prepared by the North’s Association for Human Rights Studies “to lay bare the false and reactionary nature of the reckless anti-North Korean human rights racket and to wipe out the prejudice and misunderstanding,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.
The report, more than 53,000 words in the English translation, did not mention prison gulags, which have been described in detail by defectors, including a handful of survivors, as places where anyone deemed disloyal to the country’s ruling family is detained in brutal conditions. The report instead claims that North Koreans enjoy robust human rights, including freedom of speech and religion and protection from slavery and torture.
“In the confrontation between the D.P.R.K. and U.S., the U.S. learned that it was impossible to overthrow the people-centered system by means of political and military threats and pressure as well as the economic blockade,” the report said, using the abbreviation for the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “What they found next was the human rights issue.”
North Korea's report comes ahead of a meeting on human rights in the North that Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se of South Korea and other top diplomats are scheduled to attend this month on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
North Korea has rejected the Human Rights Council resolution as “a product of confrontation” and called the defectors interviewed by the commission of inquiry “fanatics” and criminals who fled punishment in the North and “cook up groundless stories.”
SOURCE:THE NEW YORK TIMES
