Scuffle At UN After N.Korea Rejects ‘Fabricated’ UN Report
A scuffle broke out Monday in the UN Human Rights Council and a man was detained by security after a North Korean diplomat said a critical report by an independent expert had been fabricated.
North Korea said it “roundly rejects this useless interpretation” which it said was “fabricated by hostile elements” and it called on the council not to renew the mandate of special rapporteur on human rights Marzuki Darusman.
As North Korean delegate So Se Pyong was leaving the hall a scuffle occurred and a man was held by UN security officials before being later released.
The dispute erupted when council members took note of the report by Darusman, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea.
The report covers the period from September 2011 to January 2012, when it said the situation in North Korea “continued to deteriorate.”
After the report was presented, North Korea took the floor, followed by repesentatives of the European Union and Japan.
As the Japanese representative was about to finish his speech, the North Korean diplomat stood up to leave and the scuffle broke out. Some diplomats said South Korean parliamentarians tried to engage the North’s envoy
One of the men who was stopped by UN security shouted, “Remember Korean refugees.”
Japan welcomed the report and urged North Korea to find a solution to “the issue of abduction of Japanese nationals”.
Tokyo, a former coloniser of the Korean Peninsula, and Pyongyang have no formal diplomatic relations and their relations are often strained, even hostile.