North Korea says it has invited European Union human rights official to visit
Pyongyang says letter of invitation has already been sent to EU official, Stavros Lambrinidis, but it also threatens to drop recent offers of visits made to United Nations rights officials.
North Korea on Thursday said it has invited European Union’s top human rights official to visit the country, but it threatened to drop recent offers of visits by United Nations rights officials unless a UN resolution on the country removes any reference to the International Criminal Court (ICC) before Saturday.
North Korean diplomat Kim Un-chol said the visit by the EU official, Stavros Lambrinidis, is expected next March.
“We have already sent the invitation letter,” Kim said.
He also handed out a press statement that said, “We have also agreed to the visit of our country by the Special Representative for Human Right of European External Action Service,” – the name for the EU’s diplomatic service.
The European Union’s mission to the UN was not immediately available for comment on Thursday evening. But an EU official in Brussels earlier this month confirmed that Lambrinidis had met recently with a North Korean representative.
North Korea has been on the defensive since a UN commission of inquiry early this year detailed what it said were vast human rights abuses in the impoverished but nuclear-armed country and warned that leader Kim Jong-un could be held accountable.
The new EU-Japan resolution at the UN echoes the report’s recommendations, saying the Security Council should refer North Korea’s human rights situation to the International Criminal Court. Although ally China, a permanent council member, has signaled it would veto such a move, Pyongyang appears unnerved that international attention on its dismal human rights record hasn’t seemed to fade.