North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) guides the multiple-rocket launching drill of women’s sub-units under KPA Unit 851, in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
North Korea called the United States “a living hell” while offering a comprehensive listing of criticisms against the country it called “the world’s worst human rights abuser” in a news report from state-run media Wednesday.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
It seems to be part of the Hermit Kingdom’s new strategy of combating a damning United Nations report — in which more than 300 people, including prison camp survivors and guards, were interviewed — which concluded it was committing human rights violations “without any parallel in the contemporary world.”
Among abuses the North cites are homelessness, unemployment, prisons, and government monitoring “every movement of its citizens” under the pretext of “national security.”
“Such poor human right records in the U.S. are an inevitable product of the ruling quarters’ policy against humanity,” the report reads, while going on to mention the not guilty verdict of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin murder case was proof of America’s “racialism.”
Of course, one could argue that North Korea does bring up valid critiques: unemployment is still too high, the debate over NSA spying is still raging, and the U.S. does in fact imprison more people than any other country.
But that’s a pretty tough sell coming from a nation which restricts outside contact and freedom of movement, and suffers from regular shortages of electricity, food, and other basics. And of course, there’s around 200,000 people in secret prison camps where “unspeakable atrocities” comparable to Nazi warcrimes occur.
This latest release is a change from its March response to its human rights record, when North Korea’s Ambassador to the U.N. told everyone to “mind [their] own business,” according to Reuters.
(h/t Adam Taylor at The Washington Post)
Image: KCNA/Reuters
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