North Korea slams EU for raising human rights situation at UN

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) - Pyongyang on Tuesday slammed the European Union (EU) for taking up the human rights situation in North Korea in the UN General Assembly (UNGA), calling it a "politically-motivated provocation."

"This is a politically-motivated provocation aimed to tarnish the image of the dignified DPRK (official name of North Korea) and bring down its ideology and social system under the signboard of 'human rights protection,'" Pyongyang's Permanent Mission at the UN said in a statement, according to state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Recently, the EU submitted a resolution, raising the human rights situation in North Korea at the Third Committee of the 79th Session of the UNGA.

"The EU, at the instigation of the US, has annually conducted such moves as submitting 'human rights resolution' against the DPRK for more than 20 years," the statement added.

North Korea "categorically" rejected the resolution as a document for "ill-intended" political propaganda and a confrontational document contrary to the UN Charter.

"Today, the World Declaration of Human Rights and universal international human rights standards have become political means for interfering in the internal affairs of other countries by the US, and Western countries and the genuine dignity and rights of mankind have not been realized," the statement further said.

The harmful consequences, the European countries styling themselves "advanced nation in human rights" have inflicted on the work for protecting and promoting human rights in the world, are very serious and nothing can cover up them, it added.

"EU, which should sit in the dock at a human rights tribunal to face severe judgment by the international community, is trying to assess and admonish over the human rights situation in other countries at will, far from reflecting on itself," it went on to say.

Pyongyang further said that it will never tolerate any attempt of the "hostile" forces seeking to deprive its people of their "happy and independent life with ill-minded repugnance toward the Korean-style socialist system."