DPRK seeks to defuse UN criticism on human rights

Diplomat publicly acknowledges labor camps at rare open meeting

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea offered UN delegations on Tuesday its own lengthy report on Pyongyang's human rights record and repeated its dismissal of a United Nations investigation report released earlier this year as "wild rumors" peddled by "hostile forces".

The 372-page UN Commission of Inquiry report detailed alleged abuses in the country.

Pyongyang's delegation organized a rare open meeting at UN headquarters in New York, inviting national delegates and reporters to attend. The meeting in a UN conference room was packed with diplomats and journalists.

DPRK diplomat Choe Myong-nam, who represents the DPRK Association for Human Rights Studies, explained to the meeting that while there may be an occasional hiccup in his country's human rights record, Pyongyang is on the right path.

'Transition society'

"As we are a transition society, as we move forward, there might be some problems, for example in the economic and other areas, we may need to establish more houses and social facilities in order to provide people with better living conditions," Choe said.

"That's why in our Constitution there is a provision that stipulates that after society develops, the enjoyment by the people of human rights and fundamental freedoms will extend further," he added.

Choe said economic problems were the fault of "external forces", an apparent reference to international sanctions against Pyongyang over its multiple nuclear weapons tests and ballistic missile launches.

A summary of the DPRK's response to the UN report said "the hostile forces are persistently peddling the 'human rights issue' in the DPRK in a bid to tarnish its image and bring down the social system and ideology chosen by the Korean people.

"Wild rumors and fictions about the DPRK are afloat in the international community due to the hostile forces' despicable human rights racket to slander and hurt the DPRK," it added.

Choe also reiterated Pyongyang's previous statements that there are no prison camps in the country.

Detention centers

"We have time and again in the past stated about these so-called prison camps ... that there is no prison camps in the DPRK," he said. "In practice, there are no things like that."

Choe acknowledged that Pyongyang does have "detention centers".

"There are detention centers whereby people improve their mentality and look upon their wrongdoings and they reform through labor," he said.

Reuters - AP - AFP

(China Daily 10/09/2014 page11)