North Korea slams UN human rights meeting as US 'slander scheme'

US ambassador criticised leader Kim Jong Un during a UN Security Council meeting for using "repression and cruelty" to develop nuclear weapons and missiles.

The nuclear-armed state was held accountable at the UN Security Council meeting on Thursday for spending heavily on its nuclear arms programme while its people go hungry and lack basic necessities. / Photo: AP
AP

The nuclear-armed state was held accountable at the UN Security Council meeting on Thursday for spending heavily on its nuclear arms programme while its people go hungry and lack basic necessities. / Photo: AP

North Korea has slammed a recent United Nations meeting about its human rights record, asserting the United States used the international organisation for a "scheme" against Pyongyang, state media KCNA reported.

"We will never tolerate the US and its followers' anti-(North Korea) 'human rights' slander scheme and will defend the sovereignty of the state, the socialist system and security interests," North Korea's KCNA quoted as an unnamed spokesperson from the country's human rights think tank as saying on Saturday.

The UN Security Council discussed human rights abuses in North Korea on Thursday, with the US ambassador criticising leader Kim Jong Un for using "repression and cruelty" to develop nuclear weapons and missiles.

US President Joe Biden and the leaders of South Korea and Japan agreed at Camp David on Friday to deepen military and economic co-operation, facing China's growing power and nuclear threats from North Korea.

They also agreed to hold military training exercises annually and share real-time information on North Korean missile launches by the end of the year.

China, North Korea's major ally, opposed the meeting of the 15-member council on abuses in North Korea but did not attempt to block it.

For decades Pyongyang has highlighted racial discrimination in the United States as an example of Washington's hypocrisy.

North Korea said on Wednesday an American soldier, Travis King who crossed into North Korea last month, had fled racism and abuse in America.

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