Blog #4: North Korea Denies Human Rights Record.

North Korea's foreign minster Ri Su Yong has denied the claims made against the human rights record of Pyongyang's by the United Nations. The allegations, reported by a panel of United Nations experts, included crimes against humanity such as forced abortions and mass starvations. The panel has recommended North Korea's human rights situation to be addressed in the International Criminal Court. The United Nations experts have also sent a letter to Kim Jong Un warning him that he could be held accountable for these acts against humanity. Foreign minster Ri Su Yong told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva that, "The act of cooking up the report of the commission of inquiry based on lies of a few such criminals is itself a misdeed which is completely against the aspiration of the U.N for civilization and rule of law". North Korea has been trying to discredit the entire United Nations report by using Shin Dong-hyuk, a defector, and his experience in the North Korea's prison system. 

The amount of human rights in North Korea is a very controversial topic since many are aware that the country has strict laws established by the government. However, if there are such huge allegations against the treatment of Korean citizens, it's only suspicious that North Korea has become incredibly defensive and states "it is the stereotyped method of the United States ...to smear the countries disobedient to it" and that Washington "started to desperately cling to the anti-(North Korea) human rights racket, particularly since the last year". I believe that the issue should be brought to the International Criminal Court to officially prove whether or both North Korea has committed the crimes against it's civilians so that something is able to be done versus just creating more assumptions that everyone already had about the country. 

Rachel Ear
March 5, 2015
2:16 pm. 
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/03/03/world/europe/ap-eu-united-nations-nkorea.html