N. Korea blasts Obama's pick of new human rights envoy

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Oct. 8 (Yonhap) -- North Korea denounced on Thursday U.S. President Barack
Obama's recent nomination of a special envoy on the North Korean human rights,
calling it part of a hostile offensive motivated by politics.
The accusations, carried by the North's Cabinet newspaper, Minju Joson, came as
the new nominee, Robert King, was expected to join a U.S. team dealing with the
North's nuclear program.
King is awaiting confirmation by the U.S. Congress.
His nomination "testifies that the United States is not confining its hostile
policy toward our republic (North Korea) to the nuclear area, but is trying to
extend it to the human rights area," the Minju Joson said in an article carried
by the North's official Web site, Uriminzokkiri.
Obama appointed King, a former aide to the late Democrat Rep. Tom Lantos, to the
post late last month, replacing Jay Lefkowitz who quit in January after serving
under the George W. Bush administration. The position was created in 2005 under
the North Korean Human Rights Act passed by the U.S. Congress, which gave state
support to monitor and improve the human rights condition in the North and accept
defectors into the U.S.
Lefkowitz was never able to visit the North.
The North's report said human rights problems are "non-existent" in the country.
"It is not a secret that the U.S. 'human rights diplomacy' serves as an important
policy tool to interfere with other countries' internal affairs and achieve its
invasion and occupation on them," it argued.
"The U.S. 'human rights' offensive against (North) Korea is nothing but a
euphemism of its suffocation policy against our republic," it added.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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