North Korean foreign ministry slams annual US human trafficking report as 'absolute nonsense'
A North Korean flag flutters at the propaganda village of Gijungdong in North Korea, in this picture taken near the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, South Korea, July 19. Reuters-Yonhap
North Korea denounced the United States on Wednesday for the release of an updated human trafficking report, calling the move "absolute nonsense."
In an article posted on its website, Pyongyang's foreign ministry slammed the State Department's publication of the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report, which kept the country in Tier 3, the lowest category, for the 20th straight year.
It argued that the U.S. should place itself "on the operating table first" before meddling in other country's affairs and hiding its own "ills."
"That the U.S., which still follows its nasty human trafficking history, issues the 'Trafficking in Persons Report' every year and assesses the 'human trafficking situation' of other countries at its will is absolute nonsense and an insult to the human rights," the article read.
It added that human trafficking is an "incurable disease" that has been in place in the U.S. for hundreds of years ever since its founding and still remains rampant across the country.
The article pointed out the recent deaths of around 50 immigrants in a shipping container in the suburbs of San Antonio, Texas, and noted that 12.5 million Africans were forced into slavery from 1525 to 1866.
North Korea holds an estimated 80,000 to 120,000 persons in political prison camps, according to the annual report released Tuesday. (Yonhap)