North Korea: US does not intend to improve relations, only wants to overthrow the regime
North Korea says US human rights report shows current administration continues hostile policy towards Pyongyang from previous administrations.
 |
| A missile defense system is fired towards the Sea of Japan during a test of North Korea's weapons system on May 4. Photo:Reuters |
"The press release of the US State Department is nothing but a sophistry full of lies and fabrications, stemming from a sinister political purpose to tarnish the noble image of the DPRK," KCNA news agency quoted the director of policy research at the Institute for American Studies of the North Korean Foreign Ministry as saying on May 11.
The comments came after the US State Department issued a press release on North Korean human rights to mark “North Korea Freedom Week”, which is usually held in the last week of April each year. The annual event is used by international and South Korean activists to provide information on the human rights situation in North Korea.
In a statement, the US State Department said that "the North Korean government has seriously violated the human rights and fundamental freedoms" of its people.
North Korea said the statement showed the US did not want to improve bilateral relations with Pyongyang, but only wanted to overthrow the regime. "The latest press release of the US State Department is clear evidence that the current administration is also following the hostile policies toward the DPRK of the previous administrations," KCNA said.
"The US is making desperate and foolish attempts to bring us down by attaching the human rights issue to the purpose of 'maximum pressure' to destroy the regime, but it should remember that such an attempt will never hinder us, but instead push us to take a path that the US does not want to see," the North's news agency stressed.
The situation on the Korean Peninsula has shown signs of renewed tension after Pyongyang conducted two consecutive missile launches on May 4 and May 9. Experts believe that the short-range ballistic missile North Korea tested on May 9 was a weapon simulating Russia's Iskander missile, with a range of over 400 km and could threaten important US military bases in South Korea.
US President Donald Trump appeared to downplay the weapons tests, stressing that North Korea had only launched "small missiles", but asserting that "no one is happy about it". Trump later said he did not consider North Korea's missile launches to be an act of "betrayal" because they were only very basic weapons.
