UN condemns N.Korea rights abuses

The United Nations General Assembly condemned “the long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights in and by” North Korea in an annual resolution that Pyongyang’s UN envoy rejected, according to US News.

The resolution, sponsored by dozens of countries including the United States, was adopted by the 193-member General Assembly without a vote. Such resolutions are non-binding but can carry political weight.

North Korea’s UN Ambassador Kim Song told the General Assembly that the resolution has “nothing to do with the genuine promotion and protection of human rights, as it is an impure product of political plots by hostile forces that seek to tarnish the dignity and image of the DPRK and overthrow our social system.”

A landmark 2014 UN report on North Korean human rights concluded that North Korean security chiefs – and possibly leader Kim Jong Un himself – should face justice for overseeing a state-controlled system of Nazi-style atrocities.