By Matthew Russell Lee, for InnerCityPro.com
UNITED NATIONS, February 16 –The North Korean mission to the UN held a press conference at its office on Second Avenue on President’s Day, when the UN was closed. The purpose was to go public with the opposition of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the “Conference on North Korean Human Rights” to be held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on February 17.
InnerCityPro.com asked North Korean Ambassador Jang Il Hun if, as the Korea Times has reported, the event would be held in the US Capitol. No, he said, he expected it would be held on CSIS’s campus. The State Department told him that since it is not a US government event – despite the participation of Ambassador Robert King and Kurt Campbell – the DPRK’s request for cancellation or participation was not granted.
But, Jang Il Hun said, why wasn’t DPRK allowed to participate in the US goverment event in September 2014 in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel? Inner City Press covered that event, here, and asked the same question, in the spirit of the right to reply.
Despite the presence of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid, and a blue UN flag, Inner City Press was told that was not a “UN event,” so no right to reply.
InnerCityPro also asked Jang Il Hun if UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has replied to his government’s recent letter. No, was the answer. Video here and embedded below. And so it goes at the UN.
This press conference was held a small room at the DPRK mission on Second Avenue; Inner City press tweeted photos here, and here.
Jang Il Hun said he hoped this would be the first of many such events, part of DPRK’s campaign. In the foyer were photographs of gifts given to DPRK, including a signed Wilson basketball. “Now you must leave,” the Press was told. Back at the UN, the temperature was 57 degrees. Watch this site.
Here’s the DPRK Mission’s statement:
No.4 /02/15
Press Statement of the Permanent Mission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the United Nations
The Permanent Mission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the Unite Nations releases the following press statement with regard to the “Conference on North Korean Human Rights” to be hosted by the United States in Washington D.C.
The United States and south Korea are going to convene so-called “Conference on North Korean Human Rights: the Road Ahead” on 17 February in Washington by bringing together Michael Donald Kirby, former chairman of COI and Marzuki Darusman, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK.
The Permanent Mission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the United Nations condemns the convening of such human rights gathering as a political human rights plot against the DPRK and makes clear its position as follows;
The “Conference on North Korean Human Rights: the Road Ahead ” constitutes a product of the hostile policy of the United States against the DPRK, and it is nothing but a rubbish event for the United States to get rid of the predicament driven at home and abroad, due to the recent confession by the defector of the fabrication of his testimony and to the disclosure of CIA’s torture crimes.
We made due request to the U.S. on our participation in the gathering, since we are the party directly concerned. But the U.S. ignored our request for participation because they are afraid of disclosure of their plot for fabrication.
The US is advised to clean up its own human rights ravages. If the U.S. is sincerely interested in human rights, they should, above all, call into question the CIA’s torture crimes and the gross human rights violations committed by “national security law” in south Korea, far from clinging to the attempted fabrication of falsehood and plot through such as the kind of above “conference”.
The United States does not have qualification at all to talk about human rights situation of other countries, since it is the worst human rights violator in the world.
We, the people of the DPRK are proud of our political and social system chosen by ourselves and we will strongly respond to any attempts to overthrow our system under the pretext of human rights.