by STEVE HAN
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry demanded the North Korean government to close its prison camps that “bring shame” on the country on Tuesday, reported Reuters.
Kerry’s words came at an event in New York prior to the U.N. meetings to highlight human rights abuses in North Korea, which in recent years has arrested and imprisoned American tourists for alleged “hostile activities.” North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Su Yong will attend the U.N. meeting on behalf of his country.
“We say to the North Korean government, all of us here today, you should close those camps. You should shut this evil system down,” Kerry said. “We simply cannot be blind to these egregious affronts to human nature and we cannot accept it. Silence would be the greatest abuse of all.”
Furthermore, Kerry cited a U.N. panel report, which accuses North Korea of crimes against humanity for slaughtering political prisoners over the past five decades.
North Korea dismissed the panel’s report as lies.
Kerry added, “North Korea’s leadership may act as if it’s impervious to our concern, as if nothing we can say can penetrate its self imposed isolation, and yet on some level North Korea’s leaders do understand that their behavior brings shame on their country in the eyes of the world.”
North Korea is currently holding three American citizens — Jeffrey Fowle, Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae — in its state prison.
Photo courtesy of Reuters
