North Korea’s U.N. delegation declared on Friday that it was proud of Pyongyang’s social system and human rights record and rejected as baseless a U.N. monitor’s report that described appalling human rights abuses in the reclusive country. Pyongyang was reacting to a report to the U.N. General Assembly’s Third Committee, which focuses on rights issues, from U.N. special rapporteur on North Korea Marzuki Darusman that described “a wide range of human rights violations.” Among the abuses Darusman referred to in his annual report on North Korea were the alleged “extensive use of political prison camps, poor prison conditions and prisoners being subjected to forced labor, torture and corporal punishment.” North Korean delegate Kim Song read a statement to the committee, which includes all 193 U.N. member states, that said: “My delegation totally and categorically rejects the … groundless allegations.”
