North Korea bashes UN human rights council over 'arbitrary' standard

people bow to the portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, Nov. 18, in this image captured from North Korea's official Korean Central Television. Yonhap

The North Korean Foreign Ministry criticized the U.N. Human Rights Council, Saturday, for adopting "arbitrary" Western standards to attack its human rights conditions.

The ministry said the U.N. council's adoption of human rights resolutions "targets particular countries," which is against its purpose of treating human rights issues in a "fair, equal" manner.

"The U.N. Human Rights Council has become a stage for pinpointing independent, developing nations under the arbitrary Western standard," the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

The remarks came after the U.N. General Assembly's Third Committee passed a resolution Wednesday condemning North Korea's human rights violations for the 17th consecutive year.

The ministry claimed the special rapporteurs on North Korean human rights situations are from countries that do not comply with Western values and human rights standards, and are selected without discussions among member states.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, a lawyer from Argentina, has been serving in the position since 2016.

It also said the U.S. and other Western powers should stop "coercion" and "tyranny" to improve human rights "in the true sense."

The U.N. has adopted such a resolution on North Korea's human rights problem every year since 2005. This year's resolution will be forwarded to a plenary meeting of the U.N. General Assembly next month.

South Korea didn't participate in the resolution for the third consecutive year, which was seen as an apparent bid not to antagonize the reclusive neighbor as it tries to revive dialogue with the North. (Yonhap)

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