North Korea did not hold back, as they launched an impassioned attack on the United Nations recently. But what really happened?
North Korea slammed the UN on Saturday for accusing the Pyongyang dictatorship of widespread systemic human rights breaches and referred to North Korean defectors who had fled hardships as “human scum,” according to state media.
The slurs came after the nuclear-armed state was called out at a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday for lavishing funds on its nuclear weapons program while its people are hungry and lack basic needs.
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North Korean defector Ilhyeok Kim told the council that he was forced to work in fields without pay as a child, and that the grain they grew was all used by the military.
“Insult And Infringement”
“The government turns our blood and sweat into a luxurious lifestyle for the leadership, as well as missiles that blast our hard work into the sky,” he stated.
“The money we spent on just one missile could feed us for three months.”
However, an unnamed spokeswoman for the Korea Association for Human Rights Studies claimed in a statement posted by the Korean Central News Agency that the gathering was an “insult and infringement” on the spirit of the UN Charter.
Pyongyang “strongly condemns and rejects the UN Security Council for haggling over the human rights situation in a single country,” the official said.
“The DPRK people know well about their human rights situation, and they make a right appraisal of it by themselves,” they added, referring to the North by its official name.
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The defectors from North Korea are “human scum, who fled after abandoning their homeland, parents, wives, and children only to save their dirty lives,” according to the official.
Also, the hearing, initiated by the US, was the first on human rights in North Korea in the Security Council in six years.
This comes as Pyongyang has accelerated its testing of nuclear-capable missiles in the last year, raising tensions throughout East Asia.
There were no Pyongyang delegates present at the hearing.
