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North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui (center) holds a press conference in Pyongyang on Mar. 15. (AP/Yonhap News)
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Refers to statement as evidence of intentions to sabotage regime
A North Korean Foreign Ministry official denounced a North Korean human rights statement recently issued by the US State Department as “a sophistry full of falsehoods and fabrications.”
In a May 11 response to questions from a reporter with the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the policy research director of the ministry’s Institute for American studies described the statement issued by the State Department on May 6 as “stem[ming] from a sinister political purpose to tarnish the dignified image of the DPRK.”
In a spokesperson’s statement release for the 16th North Korean human rights week, the US State Department wrote, “For decades, the regime in North Korea has subjected its people to egregious violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
“We remain gravely concerned and deeply troubled by these abuses,” the statement said.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry official said the US had “laid bare the American ulterior intention that it does not want the improved DPRK-US relations really, but seeks only to overthrow our system.” The official also said the statement was “clear evidence that the present administration follows in the footsteps of previous administrations in regard to policies hostile to the DPRK.”
“Although the US is making desperate and foolish efforts to bring us down by clinging to the ‘human rights’ racket along with the ‘maximum pressure’ aimed at destroying our system, it should bear in mind that such an attempt will [. . .] instead push us dynamically to a direction where the US does not want to see,” the official said.
By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter
Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
