North Korea rebuttal at UN - U.S. the biggest violator of human rights in the world

DPRK Permanent Mission to the UN

Today the U.S. and other Western countries are increasingly cracking down on the human rights of the peoples of their countries, including on their socio-economic and cultural rights as well as on political freedom and rights.

In the U.S., whose population accounts for 5% of the world's population, prisoners there account for 25% of the total number of prisoners in the world. Today, when the world is rushing to scale a new peak of human civilization, medieval torture and other kinds of human rights violations are being committed in the prison camps of the U.S.

Racial discrimination in the U.S., a self-proclaimed model country in the field of human rights, is cutting a wide swath with official and open sanction.

The chain of murders of innocent young black people committed by white policemen recently threw the whole world into a state of consternation.

Many working people, denied the rights to an existence and work, are wandering the streets as unemployed in the U.S. and other Western countries.

Extreme selfishness, misanthropy and such crimes as murder, robbery, rape, prostitution, racial discrimination, and discrimination and maltreatment of American Indians and immigrants are prevalent in American society, and people live in constant fear and misery.

Under the signboard of "defending human rights" the U.S. launches aggressive wars, enslaving peoples of other countries and openly interfering in their internal affairs, and thus violates their human rights. These aggressive wars not only trample upon their sovereignty but also claim the lives of their peoples, threaten their right to existence and restrict their socio-economic and cultural progress. Typical examples are the armed aggression against Grenada, the air campaign against the former Yugoslavia and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The U.S. has set up secret prison camps in various parts of the world, abducting people and torturing them in these camps. In the prison camp at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay 160 persons still languish.

The drone attacks committed by the U.S. are claiming many lives in Pakistan, Yemen and other countries.

The indiscriminate phone tapping and e-mail theft by the U.S. which have been exposed recently are illegal acts of espionage and, at the same time, a brazen-faced violation of human rights. Up to now the U.S. has set up phone-tapping facilities in over 80 places across the world, and wiretapped the telephone conversations of not only presidents and other high-ranking officials of their allies but also ordinary citizens by enlisting the National Security Agency and other intelligence organs.

Picking a quarrel using the "human rights issue" with the countries that are following the road of independence, the U.S. and other Western countries are interfering in their internal affairs, toppling their legitimate governments and suppressing human rights in these countries. These days the U.S. and other Western countries are egging on international organizations to kick up a fuss about the "human rights issue" in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. This, in essence, is a serious act of aggression aimed at overthrowing its system and government. This is aggravating the situation on the Korean peninsula and the region surrounding it.

Many countries in the world still suffer from internal conflict and unrest, their peoples' right to life is seriously threatened. One of the major reasons for this is that the U.S. and other Western countries are aggravating the situation and attempting to fish in troubled waters capitalizing on the conflict and unrest. Many countries are experiencing economic difficulties and their peoples' right to existence is being seriously threatened because of the economic sanctions and blockade imposed by the U.S. and other Western countries.

The human rights issue is becoming more serious and complicated as the days go by owing to the U.S.'s high-handedness, arbitrariness and double standards. These days dialogue and collaboration for the promotion of genuine human rights on an international scale have disappeared, and high-handedness, arbitrariness and double standards produced by the political interests of some countries are cutting a wide swath. Disregarding the principles of mutual respect, trust and benefit and noninterference in the internal affairs of others, they are unilaterally demanding "cooperation" and "collaboration" in the field of human rights so as to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.

It is a matter of course that cooperation and collaboration among countries are needed to resolve the human rights issue. However, this cooperation and collaboration must be subject to the commonly recognized principles of international law and must not be used as a precondition for interference in others' internal affairs.

The U.S. and other Western countries are making this issue more complicated by bringing it not only to the UN and other international political organizations but to international economic and trade organizations. International economic and trade organizations are discussing the human rights issue, which is irrelevant to economic and trade issues, and this causes sharp antagonism among countries. This is a stark reality today.

The fact that the U.S. releases a "human rights report" every year and adopts federal laws against other sovereign states shows how far its high-handedness, arbitrariness and double standards have gone. It has made public such a report again this year, in which it claimed that China, Russia, Cuba, Iran and some other countries violated the human rights of their people and that no other country now makes efforts to defend human rights as the U.S. does.

The international community laments the present reality in which the greatest human rights violator itself behaves as the "human rights judge."