By Yi Whan-woo
North Korea is stepping up efforts to prevent the United Nations from accusing its leader Kim Jong-un of committing crimes against humanity.
Earlier this month, Pyongyang’s senior diplomats challenged the U.N.’s move to push to bring Kim before the International Criminal Court (ICC). It also circulated a draft resolution in an apparent bid to put a spin on its human rights record.
On Oct. 22, North Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Ja Song-nam and its senior foreign ministry official, Choe Yong-nam, protested against “hostility” toward their country during an extraordinary session of the U.N. general assembly held in New York City. The session was held to discuss horrific human rights conditions in the communist regime.
“We have long since been telling the international community that the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) attaches importance to dialogue and cooperation in the area of human rights,” said Choe.
“But we cannot simply continue such dialogue for as long as forces remain hostile to the DPRK are trying to eliminate the DPRK as a state, as a country and as a nation,” he said.
Ja also gave a formal answer to allegations on North Korea raised by Michael Kirby. The Australian was in charge of a U.N. commission of inquiry (COI) report released in February. The COI report accused the tyrannical state of running political prison camps where up to 120,000 people are thought to be detained.
In an Oct. 20 online edition of The New York Times, North Korea’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Jang Il-hun warned that the country would take countermeasures against any efforts to charge its leader with human rights violations at the ICC.
“In my country we don’t even know the term ‘political prisoners,’” Jang said at a session with about 40 members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York City. The CFR is a U.S. nonprofit think tank that focuses on Washington’s foreign policy and international affairs.
He denied that anyone had been forced into labor camps and claimed that what the U.N. says are camps for political prisoners are places where citizens are encouraged to “reform” their political views.
Pyongyang has been attempting to justify its human rights record after a draft resolution was circulated on Oct. 9 at U.N. headquarters.
The COI report showed that the European Union (EU) is asking members of the U.N. to drum up support for the prosecution of North Korea’s leaders, including Kim, at the ICC for committing crimes against humanity.
The U.N. is expected to hold a vote at its General Assembly in late November to decide whether to accept a final resolution proposed by the EU.
On Oct. 15, Pyongyang circulated another draft resolution during a closed-door meeting at the U.N. headquarters where dozens of diplomats from some 60 countries attended.
It reportedly called for “an end to the practice of calling into question the human rights situation of specific individual countries.” It added that Pyongyang called on the U.N. to make an “unbiased reassessment of the human rights situation" under its regime.”