Pyongyang: North Korea on Friday decried a recent high-level U.N. Assembly meeting on the country's human rights situation as a "politically motivated provocation," vowing not to overlook such a smear campaign by "hostile forces."
According to Yonhap News Agency, the North's Korea Association for Human Rights Studies issued the criticism, carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), regarding the first high-level U.N. General Assembly session convened Tuesday to address North Korea's human rights abuses.
During the meeting, North Korean escapees, activists and others called for international action to improve the human rights situation in North Korea, with two defectors from the country sharing insider accounts of the issue.
The association accused Washington, Seoul and other countries of a "heinous politically motivated provocation" for viciously picking on the human rights situation in North Korea, denouncing the meeting as a contravention of the U.N. Charter and international law, which respect sovereignty and noninterference in internal affairs.
"The U.N. has never been openly used as an arena for confrontation, plot and fabrication by the specific forces seeking to overthrow the system of a sovereign state as today," the group claimed.
It also described the meeting as a "heinous smear campaign" by hostile forces, accusing them of denying North Korea's ideology and system, and inciting the overthrow of the state. It warned that the country will never overlook such actions.
Attending the Tuesday meeting, North Korean Ambassador to the U.N. Kim Song bristled at the session, repeating his country's long-held stance of dismissing international calls to improve human rights as a plot to "politicize" and "weaponize" human rights issues. Kim also labeled the two North Korean defectors as "scum."