(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) North Korea on Monday strongly protested against the UN plan to set up a field office in South Korea that will deal with North Korean human rights violations, threatening "merciless punishment," the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry said late last month that it has accepted a request by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to set up the office in South Korea as part of the international community's growing efforts to deal with the North Korean human rights issue.
Pyongyang's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea issued a statement saying that the plan to install the UN office in the South is a scheme led by the US and South Korea.
"If (anyone) disturbs our dignity or system and gets crazy about the anti-state human rights commotion, (we) will never tolerate them and mercilessly punish them regardless of whether they are the puppet group, its boss or anyone who belongs to whatever international organization," the statement said.
"The UN office on North Korean human rights to be installed in the South and its staff workers will be not an exception," the North warned. South Korea will pay a hefty price for hosting the anti-state human rights office, it said. "The UN office should not blame anyone else even after getting a shower of thunderous attacks.
The decision to open the office came on the heels of a report by the UN Commission of Inquiry published in March, accusing North Korea of "systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights." It also suggested the UN refer the issue to the International Criminal Court. The field office plan is a follow-up step to the international community's mounting efforts to bring the North Korean regime to justice for its human rights violations. The envisioned office in South Korea will have a staff of five or six officials and operate fully with a budget set by the UN, according to the report.
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