North Korea slams US for seeking UN meeting on human rights

North Korea is accusing the Trump administration and some supporters of trying to “stoke confrontation” instead of promoting peace efforts by calling for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss human rights in the country.

North Korea’s UN Ambassador Kim Song said in a letter on Tuesday that the United States and other unnamed countries “are trying to employ all possible wicked and sinister methods” to hold a council meeting on December 10 and have UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet address it.

Kim sent letters to all council members except the United States urging them to vote against holding a meeting on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, the country’s official name. He sent similar letters to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and General Assembly President Maria Espinosa Garces.

The Security Council has discussed human rights in the DPRK for the past four years. Each meeting went ahead only after a procedural vote in the 15-member council, where at least nine “yes” votes are needed to hold the session.

Earlier this month, the UN General Assembly’s human rights committee adopted a resolution by consensus condemning North Korea’s “long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights” and strongly urging its government to immediately end the abuses. It is certain to be approved by the 193-member assembly in December.

In October, the UN independent investigator on human rights in the isolated Asian nation said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s summits with the presidents of South Korea and the United States have not changed his country’s abysmal human rights record.