The United States urged North Korea on Wednesday to take concrete steps to dismantle its political prison camps, a day after North Korean diplomats at the United Nations claimed the communist nation maintains no such camps.
The North’s mission to the U.N. held a briefing Tuesday on the country’s human rights situation, claiming that the country is trying to guarantee human rights for its people and is open to genuine human rights talks with any countries.
North Korean diplomats acknowledged that the country maintains labor camps as correctional facilities, but reiterated the country’s long-standing position that there are no political prison camps in the country.
“We’ve continued to urge, and urge again, North Korea to take concrete steps, as outlined by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, to dismantle the prison camps,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters at a regular press briefing.
When Secretary of State John Kerry attended an event the U.S.
organized on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly last month to discuss the North’s human rights problem, he called on Pyongyang to close all prison camps, Psaki said.
“This includes both its prison labor camps, which North Korea is apparently acknowledging now, and its notorious political prison camps, which, such as Yodok, the existence of which they continue to deny. So they acknowledge some camps, not all, but certainly we continue to call on them to close,” she said.
North Korea has long been labeled one of the worst human rights violators in the world. The communist regime does not tolerate dissent, holds hundreds of thousands of people in political prison camps across the nation and keeps tight control over outside information.
But Pyongyang has bristled at any talk of its human rights conditions, calling it a U.S.-led attempt to topple its regime.
Earlier this month, the North released its own human rights report, claiming the country has the world’s most advantageous human rights system and policies.
This year, the issue has drawn greater international attention since the U.N. Commission of Inquiry issued a report in February, saying that North Korean leaders are responsible for “widespread, systematic and gross” violations of human rights.
The report also said the International Criminal Court should handle North Korea’s “crimes against humanity.”
Meanwhile, Psaki said she has no information to offer about the whereabouts of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who has not been seen in public for more than a month. Kim’s absence from public view has raised speculation and rumors ranging from health problems to a military coup.
“We’ve, of course, seen those same reports. I really don’t have anything new for you,” she said. “Given how opaque the government, the North Korean regime is, it’s probably not surprising that there’s very little reliable information out there. But I don’t have anything new for you on it or any confirmation of anything.”
Asked for comment on South Korea’s indictment of a Japanese reporter based in Seoul for defaming President Park Geun-hye, the spokeswoman said that the U.S. has been following the case from the beginning but she has no additional details to offer.
“As you know, we broadly support freedom of speech and expression, and we have outlined in the past, including in our recent reports that we issue annually from the State Department, about our concerns about the law on the books in South Korea,” she said.
She was apparently referring to the State Department’s annual country reports on human rights practices, where it noted that South Korea’s National Security Law forbids citizens from reading books published in North Korea if the government determines that such an action endangers national security. (Yonhap)
