North Korea’s
Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday rejecting the draft resolution
on its human rights track record, passed on Tuesday by the U.N. Third
Committee, and threatening to conduct a nuclear test.
“We fully reject the forceful passing of
this draft resolution led by the U.S. as it tries to overthrow this socialist
state that is built on its people,” the announcement
went. “The parties leading the movement and their
puppets will be fully responsible of all results stemming from the adoption of
this anti-republic ‘human rights resolution’.”
“America’s
aggression toward Chosun [North Korea] has made us incapable of further holding
back on nuclear tests, and in this environment, our war deterrence capabilities
will be strengthened with no limits to act against forceful intervention and
invasion plots from the U.S.,” the statement continued.
“We had expressed our will to provide
extensive cooperation in the field of human rights and actively promote
dialogue and exchanges in the field. However, our aggressors have in the end
refused cooperation and instead chosen the path of confrontation,” it further read.
“The reason why the U.S. has launched an
offensive on the issue of human rights is because it wants to create a pretext
for forceful intervention,” the North claimed. “The reality in which international law kowtows to greater power
further proves our belief that ‘human rights come from
sovereign power’.”
An official from South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, when asked about the possibility of
Pyongyang conducting another nuclear test, said, “Our
basic stance on the issue is that North Korea’s nuclear
test attempts are not desirable as they hurt inter-Korean relations and peace
on the Korean Peninsula.” The official added Seoul
plans to keep a watchful eye on movements within the North.
The UN’s Third
Committee, which oversees human rights issues, put a draft resolution on human
rights in North Korea to vote on November 18th. The draft, jointly proposed by
Japan, the European Union, and some 60 other parties, was passed with 111
voting for, 19 against, and 55 abstaining.
The draft resolution proposes to refer the
case of human rights abuses in North Korea to the International Criminal Court
[ICC] and hold those responsible, including the supreme leadership,
accountable.
Meanwhile, 38
North, the website run by the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins
University, reported that “accumulating evidence” suggests North
Korea “may be preparing to restart the Radio-chemical Laboratory”
at Yongbyon, which reprocesses nuclear fuel into weapons-grade plutonium.
