News / Koreas

North Korea vows to boycott UN Human Rights Council

Wednesday, 02 March 2016 12:07 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 02 March 2016 12:06 AM ]

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong (AFP)

North Korea has announced a boycott of the United Nations Human Rights Council citing its “selectivity and double standards."

"We shall no longer participate in international sessions singling out the human rights situation of (North Korea) for mere political attack," said North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong during a speech at the 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday.

Ri added that the US and its allies were using false human rights abuse allegations to support their cause of eliminating the North.

He also referred to a "human rights racket" against North Korea in which "so-called North Korean defectors" received over $5,000 to "fabricate" lies about the situation in his country.

In order to earn a living, the defectors “are compelled to continue to fabricate and sell groundless testimonies by trying to make them sound as shocking as possible,” he said.

The North’s foreign minister also claimed that Pyongyang’s enemies were offering economic support to UN member countries to push anti-North Korean resolutions.

"In other words, the voting process at the international human rights mechanisms is being commercialized," he said, adding, "Whether or not such resolutions are to be put to a vote will be none of our business and we will never be bound by them."

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