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DPRK blames S. Korea for human rights "racket"

05 September 2014 23:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday blamed South Korea for a human rights "racket," which the country said "has reached an extremely reckless phase," the official KCNA news agency reported, APA report quoting Xinhua.

South Korea announced Monday a plan to open an exhibition hall on the DPRK human rights record, where pictures, videos and other materials depicting living conditions of the DPRK people will be put on display, in a bid to raise public awareness about the issue, according to South Korean media.

"This is another intolerable grave politically motivated provocation against the DPRK and a confrontational racket to push North-South relations to a catastrophe," the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea was quoted as saying in a statement.

The agency said no such "human rights issue" exists in the DPRK as the country practices socialist system and pursues caring polices for its people.

South Korea's human rights commission should question human rights abuses on its own land, especially the Sewol ferry disaster, which killed hundreds of innocent travelers on board and triggered widespread public discontent and social debate. Data regarding human rights abuses in South Korea should be displayed if such an exhibition is to be established, said the statement.

It warned that such an anti-DPRK move will have consequences on inter-Korean relations and that Pyongyang will not remain an on-looker and will take resolute countermeasures.

On Aug. 18, the DPRK rejected U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's remarks on its human rights situation, saying the country will not tolerate any attempt to subvert its social system by using human rights as an excuse.

In a report released in February, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK raised widespread concerns over abuses of human rights in the country.

The DPRK rejected the report. In August, it said it would issue a report of human rights to show the true picture of its people's lives.