DPRK vows to firmly counter U.S. human rights racket

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) slammed the United States on Saturday for helping to put the human rights issue on the agenda of the UN Security Council and said it will firmly counter the human rights racket.

The official KCNA news agency cited a spokesman for the DPRK foreign ministry as saying that the DPRK "strongly denounces" and "categorically rejects" the U.S. convocation of a UN Security Council meeting aimed at taking issue with the human rights record in the DPRK.

He said the move was taken to fan up an atmosphere of international pressure on the DPRK and that the human rights racket is "a product of its (U.S.) persistent hostile policy toward the DPRK."

The spokesman urged Washington again to sign a peace treaty with Pyongyang to defuse danger of a war and to create a peaceful climate on the Korean Peninsula.

"We will counter with high vigilance and tough stand the anti-DPRK "human rights" racket being kicked up by the hostile forces including the United States," he stressed.

Wang Min, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said at a Security Council meeting Thursday that China opposes putting the situation in the DPRK by the Security Council on its provisional agenda citing human rights reasons.

Wang said the UN Charter stipulates explicitly that the primary responsibility of the Security Council is to maintain international peace and security and that human rights situation in the DPRK does not constitute a threat to international peace and security. Endi