North Korea denounces UN's condemnation of human rights violations

Han Tae-song, North Korea's permanent representative to the UN office in Geneva, speaks in the 52nd United Nations Human Rights Council meeting on Tuesday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

North Korea on Thursday denounced a recent United Nations Human Rights Council (Unhrc) resolution that criticized the North's human rights violations as a political fraud.

Han Tae-song, the North's permanent representative to the UN office in Geneva, said his country "categorically" rejected the UN resolution as an "intolerable act of political provocation and hostility," according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The resolution is "the most heavily politicized document of fraud, which is full of such falsehood and fabrications," Han said in an English-language statement carried by the KCNA, claiming the resolution contained nonexistent phenomena in the North.

The Unhrc adopted a resolution denouncing North Korea's gross human rights violations by consensus Tuesday. South Korea co-sponsored the resolution for the first time in five years.

Han also took issue with the South's active cooperation to draft the resolution as co-sponsor, calling it "a mere colonial servant of the United States."

"The DPRK will never tolerate any hostile act of the U.S. and its following forces encroaching upon our sovereignty and dignity, and will make every possible effort to defend the genuine people's system and their rights," he said.

The DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The North has long bristled at the international community's criticism of its human rights abuses, calling it a U.S.-led attempt to topple its regime.

The Unhrc has adopted a resolution condemning North Korea's human rights abuses every year since 2003.

But South Korea did not co-sponsor such UN resolutions from 2019 to 2022 under the previous Moon Jae-in administration that apparently sought to avoid tensions with the North in favor of resuming inter-Korean dialogue.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO, YONHAP [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]