North Korea labels prominent defector a criminal in letter to UN over rights report
Pyongyang's angry tone at defector's admission of fabricating evidence dismissed by UN human rights inquiry head as ineffectual and out of proportion
North Korea has launched an aggressive campaign seeking to discredit a UN report on human rights abuses in the country, following news that a prominent defector had recanted parts of his testimony.
Shin Dong-hyuk, subject of the bestselling book Escape from Camp 14, is a well known North Korean defector and gave testimony to a UN inquiry that has issued a damning indictment of the North’s rights abuses.
On Sunday, Shin admitted in a post on his Facebook page to having changed parts of his story.
“He is a swindler who had appeared with false name and career, and no more than a parasite,” Ja Song-nam, North Korea’s Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, said in a letter seen by reporters.
The letter was sent to the UN General Assembly and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the North Koreans asked that it be regarded as an official document.
It repeated North Korea’s long-held position that it does not run political prison camps and said Shin was a “criminal who fled after raping a minor girl who was only 13 years old”.
North Korea has accused Shin of rape in the past. In an October interview, Shin said the accusation of sexual assault was a fabrication that he had heard before.