Pyongyang Condemns UN Special Reporting Report On Human Rights In North Korea

Illustration of the handling of COVID-19 in North Korea. (Source: KCNA)

JAKARTA - North Korea on Tuesday criticized UN Special Rapporteur for human rights North Korea Elizabeth Salmon for submitting reports of human rights abuses in North Korea to the UN General Assembly, calling it the United States "ingent and high-end" service.

In the report, Salmon said North Korea continued to tighten its control over the population, restricting the right to freedom of movement after imposing COVID-19 precautions in early 2020. The report also concerns the enactment of several North Korean laws that include the provision of the death penalty that limits human rights, including the right to freedom of expression.

North Korea said it "firmly" rejected the UN report, calling it a US conspiracy product to tarnish North Korea's image, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

North Korea defended its steps to deal with COVID-19, as an "most lucrative emergency anti-epidemic measure" that guarantees the life rights of North Koreans amid the global health crisis.

Regarding the three so-called malicious laws, North Korea said its legislative measures were intended to protect its ideology and social system from "ideological and cultural poisoning that is cruel by the US and the West that wants internal erosion and collapse of sovereign states." said KCNA.

North Korea is accused of increasing surveillance and punishment for its people, especially young people, by implementing the three laws, including laws passed in 2020 to "reject ideological and reactionary culture." The law is aimed at preventing North Koreans from accessing information from outside.

"'Special reporters' on the DPRK's human rights situation, echoing the fake trash and rumors spread by the US and its subordinates to play a missionary role for anti-DPRK conspiracies 'human rights', indeed, are dolls and top-class US servants," KCNA said.