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A councilor at North Korea's diplomatic mission to Geneva on Wednesday said South Korea will have to be held responsible for "irresponsible remarks" about the North's human rights record which will have "negative repercussions" on inter-Korean relations.
Choe Myong-nam made the remarks at a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, in response to a speech in which a South Korean government representative urged Pyongyang to take measures to improve its human rights situation.
Using the right of reply at the UNHRC session, Choe said, "We have strong doubts about whether the South Korean government is aware of the spirit of non-interference in each other's internal affairs and international cooperation of the inter-Korean summit agreements of 2000 and 2007."
When a South Korean representative expressed concerns about the North Korean human rights situation at the 2007 UNHRC session, a North Korean delegate merely said the representative's remarks "run counter to the spirit of the joint inter-Korean declaration and the atmosphere of reconciliation prevailing on the Korean Peninsula."
Choe's remarks at the latest session show that North Korea has apparently decided to strongly resist the new South Korean government's hard-line policy on the issue.
When a representative of European Union chair Slovenia called for extending the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, Choe called the UN "extremely politicized." He said the demand is based on a "double standard applied selectively to North Korea" and is "neither justified nor accepted."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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