North Korea rejects UN resolution on human rights

Pyongyang, March 31 (IANS): North Korea Monday rejected a UN resolution condemning human rights violations in the country.

North Korea "totally opposes and rejects" the resolution, "a product of the vicious hostile policy towards it," Xinhua quoted a North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson as saying.

The reaction came three days after the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the resolution with a 30-6 vote, with 11 members abstaining.

The resolution condemns, among other things, "the long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations and other human rights abuses" in the country.

The spokesman claimed that the US and other hostile countries, while "unable to bring down North Korea by taking issue with it over its nuclear issue", now seek to invent an excuse for toppling the country's social system by intensifying "human rights racket" against Pyongyang.

"Human rights precisely mean national sovereignty," he added.

The latest move came as Pyongyang vowed Sunday to carry out a "new form" of nuclear test to further strengthen its nuclear deterrence if the US continuesd its hostile policy.

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North Korea rejects UN resolution on human rights