U.S. tells North Korea: dismantle political prison camps, free inmates

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

WORLD NEWS MAY 9, 2019 / 9:16 AM / UPDATED 41 MINUTES AGO

U.S. tells North Korea: dismantle political prison camps, free inmates

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States called on North Korea on Thursday to “dismantle all political prison camps” and release all political prisoners, who it said numbered between 80,000 and 120,000.

In remarks to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Mark Cassayre, U.S. charge d’affaires, also urged North Korean authorities to allow aid workers in the isolated country unrestricted movement and access to populations in need.

Earlier North Korean ambassador Han Tae Song told the 47-member forum that “people’s rights to life and fundamental freedoms are fully ensured” in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea but that sanctions were hampering their enjoyment.

Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, editing by Tom Miles

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-un/u-s-tells-north-korea-dismantle-political-prison-camps-free-inmates-idUSKCN1SF1JQ

[Iliyah]

1. Sorry shithole administration . .

no one cares and no one respects you.

[walkingman]

2. Ironic - coming from the US who has the highest incarceration rate in the world per capita.

[Bayard]

3. Or what?

[GemDigger]

4. Kim doesn't seem to have much of a sense of

humor but I bet he laughed his ass off on that one.

[soryang]

5. US emphasis on NK human rights activism is code for regime change

In any case, what happened in Hanoi was a rejection of negotiations and a return to regime change politics by the US despite Trump and Pompeo’s statements to the contrary. This was signaled implicitly by the invasion of the Madrid embassy by the group “Free Joseon” (just days before the Hanoi summit); the US adoption of an all or nothing approach to negotiations with no reciprocity at Hanoi; the rejection by the US of the South Korean recommendations for joint Korean economic overtures; the defacto abandonment of the Singapore joint statement; the public complaints about human rights abuses in North Korea by US representatives to UN committees; and the human rights content of daily VOA broadcasts in Korean, including public statements from senior republicans in Congress and the Senate on a daily basis concerning human rights, weapons of mass destruction and other items not outlined at Singapore. The import of these events is unmistakable. Even the conservative expert in South Korea, Thae Yong Ho (the former DPRK diplomat who defected to South Korea) has commented that a return to human rights issues is the code for regime change in North Korea and signals an end to negotiation.