N.Korea slams UNHRC's adoption of resolution on its human rights

Seoul, April 6

North Korea on Thursday condemned the latest adoption of a resolution by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that denounced Pyongyang's human rights violations.

Han Tae-song, the North's permanent representative to the UN office in Geneva, said his country "categorically" rejected the resolution as an "intolerable act of political provocation and hostility", according to Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The resolution is "the most heavily politicised document of fraud which is full of such falsehood and fabrications", Han said in a statement carried by the KCNA, claiming "the resolution contained nonexistent phenomen" in the North.

The UNHRC adopted the resolution by consensus on Tuesday. South Korea co-sponsored the resolution for the first time in five years.

The North has long bristled at the international community's criticism of its human rights abuses, calling it a US-led attempt to topple its regime.

The UNHRC has adopted a resolution condemning North Korea's human rights abuses every year since 2003.

But South Korea did not co-sponsor such a UN resolution from 2019 to 2022 under the previous Moon Jae-in administration that apparently sought to avoid tensions with the North and resume inter-Korean dialogue.