North Korea is defending its human rights record, even while acknowledging it runs labor camps that have been slammed by rights groups as inhumane.
The comments came Tuesday during a rare briefing with reporters and foreign diplomats at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
North Korean foreign ministry official Choe Myong Nam repeated his country's long-standing assertion there are no prison camps, where tens of thousands of people are believed to be held.
But he acknowledged the existence of reform-through-labor detention centers, where he said "people are improved through their mentality and look upon their wrongdoings."
He also slammed the U.N. report as "wild rumors and fictions," calling it a dishonest and hostile attempt to tarnish North Korea and overthrow its government.
He acknowledged North Korea may suffer economic problems, but said even these are the fault of "external forces," a reference to international sanctions imposed on the communist state.
SOURCE: VOICE OF AMERICA
