Pyongyang website slams Moon gov't for 'fussing' over N.K. human rights
SEOUL, July 22 (Yonhap) -- A North Korean propaganda website on Saturday warned South Korea's new liberal government to get its hands off the North's human rights issues.
Pyongyang's propaganda website Uriminzokkiri said in a commentary that inter-Korean relations will eventually be brought to a "catastrophic" state as long as the incumbent government in South Korea continues to make a "fuss" over human rights issues in North Korea.
U.N. Special Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana holds a news conference in Seoul on July 21, 2017. (Yonhap)
The website issued the commentary while denouncing recent meetings between U.N. Special Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana and South Korean officials in Seoul.
Quintana wrapped up his five-day stay here on Friday aimed at collecting information about human rights violations in North Korea by meeting with government officials of relevant ministries, experts and those who defected from the communist state.
His visit coincided with an offer from the Moon Jae-in government to hold military talks with the North and Red Cross talks to discuss reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. There has been no official response from the North on the overtures.
"Inter-Korean relations have deteriorated to their worst level and mutual distrust and confrontation have heightened, because conservatives during the (preceding) Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye governments raised questions over the North's human rights," said the commentary.
"Forgetful of the lessons of the past, the incumbent authorities in South Korea are again making a fuss over the North Korean human rights. This is ugly and disgusting," it said.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, while meeting with Quintana in Seoul Monday, said that human rights in North Korea remains to be a "matter of great concern" to the South Korean government.
ycm@yna.co.kr
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