North Korean Academy Issues White Paper Saying Country Defended Human Rights

The Human Rights Institute of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Academy of Social Sciences on Saturday issued a white paper claiming North Korea defended human rights, based on a thorough study on the human rights situation on a worldwide scale for the past nearly seven decades since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

According to a report by KCNA Watch, the state news agency of North Korea, the white paper did not only praise North Korea for upholding human rights but also talked about nations that "violated them," referring to Western countries like the U.S. and the U.K.

The report said: "The DPRK is a country where genuine human rights are firmly protected and successfully put into practice as the working masses' democratic freedom and rights are most thoroughly defended and most brilliantly realized."

"The most popular human rights system under socialism that was established in the DPRK consists of the human rights legal system which has codified the human rights, independent rights to be exercised by the people in all fabrics of social life including politics, economy and culture, the regular state mechanism which helps people thoroughly realize their independent rights and the system for education and promotion of human rights," it continued

The white paper attacked Western nations like the U.S., U.K. and France. "The imperialist countries like U.S., Britain and France opposed the call of socialist countries for including rights to labor and rest and social security in the World Declaration of Human Rights, but tried to include the contents of bourgeois human rights documents like the American Declaration of Independence and French Declaration of Human Rights in the World Declaration of Human Rights."

The report blamed the U.S. and other "imperialist countries" for hindering the processes of "preparation" and the "adoption" of human rights legalities even after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human rights.

The white paper claimed the U.S. is a self-styled "human rights judge" who scrutinizes human rights situations in other countries. The report states the U.S. deceived other nations under the disguise of defending human rights and then "committed innumerable wars of aggression," violating human rights.

The above report comes in direct conflict with the fact that a U.N. committee in November this year, backed a Japan-led resolution which condemned human rights violations in North Korea. According to a report by the Japan Times, the resolution said: "The human rights situation in the DPRK continues to be of great concern."

"Serious violations of human rights are committed in a widespread and systematic way, with disregard for international law, and they are too often overlooked due to the headline-grabbing missile and nuclear issue," a joint Japan-EU statement read, prior to the resolution’s adoption.

The report stated that the resolution noted the fact that more than half of the population in North Korea suffered from major insecurities in terms of food and medical care while a quarter of the population suffered from malnutrition.

The resolution condemned the "systematic abduction, denial of repatriation and subsequent enforced disappearance of persons," from Japan and other nations.

The resolution was passed by the General Assembly’s Third Committee on humanitarian issues and called on Pyongyang to "urgently" solve the issue at hand and also ensure that abductees are returned immediately.