North Korea was pilloried on Thursday at the UN Security Council for its “atrocious violations” of human rights against its population which allow it to develop its nuclear and ballistic weapons programs, despite international sanctions.
At the request of the United States, which chairs the Security Council in August, a two-hour public meeting was exclusively devoted to the “violations” of fundamental rights by the Pyongyang regime. A first since 2017.
Surrounded by diplomats from more than 50 states at the United Nations headquarters in New York, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield denounced in a joint statement to the press “human rights violations and abuses inextricably linked to weapons of mass destruction and development of DPRK ballistic missiles”, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, its official name.
In a public session at the Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, via video link, had previously ruled that North Korea’s “violations” of freedoms and rights “support the growth of the militarization” of the communist regime.
For example, Mr. Türk detailed, “the large-scale use of forced labor — including political prisoners, school children for harvesting — the confiscation of the wages of workers abroad, all of this supports the military apparatus of the state and its capacity to manufacture weapons”.
The Council also invited a young “representative of civil society”, who fled North Korea and took refuge in South Korea.
Reading a text in English, Ilhyeok Kim denounced the “isolation” and the “punishments” of the North Korean population, the “blood and sweat” of the people for “the luxurious life of the leaders”.
“But the government does not care, it only cares about preserving its power by developing nuclear weapons,” said the young man.
“The violations and abuses of human rights that you have just recounted are so atrocious that they are unimaginable”, replied, moved, the American Thomas-Greenfield, castigating “the totalitarian and repressive control of society by (the leader North Korean) Kim Jong Un”.
Russia, which like China was opposed to this Council meeting, denounced through its deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyansky “the cynicism and hypocrisy of the United States and its allies”.
North Korea has been subject to international sanctions since 2006, which were increased three times in 2017.
The measures taken that year unanimously by the Security Council to compel Pyongyang to interrupt its nuclear and ballistic weapons programs notably limit its oil imports.
Since 2017, the Council has been disunited with North Korea.
In May 2022, Beijing and Moscow had vetoed new sanctions and no Council resolution or statement has been adopted since, despite several North Korean missile launches.
08/17/2023 22:11:05 – United Nations (United States) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
