North Korea denounces US plans for an open UN Security Council meeting on its human rights record

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea has denounced U.S.-led plans for an open U.N. Security Council meeting on its human rights record as only aimed at achieving Washington’s geopolitical ambitions. The North’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong called the United States a “declining” power on Tuesday and said if the council dealt with any country’s human rights, the U.S. should be the first, “as it is the anti-people empire of evils, totally depraved.” The United States holds the Security Council’s presidency this month and has scheduled the meeting on human rights in North Korea for Thursday. It will be the first open council meeting on human rights in the reclusive northeast Asian country since 2017.