Nation of Peace urges UN meeting on CIA torture

[Morphine Prince 109,645]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - North Korea on Monday asked the United Nations Security Council to add the issue of torture by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to its agenda as the council prepares to hold a meeting next week on alleged human rights abuses by the Asian state.

The council is due to meet on Dec. 22 or Dec. 23 on human rights in North Korea after two-thirds of the 15-members pushed for the issue to be added to the body's agenda. A U.N. report in February detailed abuses in North Korea that it said were comparable to Nazi-era atrocities.

Once an issue is on the Security Council agenda, it can be discussed at any time. Majority support is needed to add an item to the agenda and cannot be blocked by the five veto-wielding powers - China, Russia, the United States, France and Britain.

Diplomats said it was not likely that enough countries would support a council meeting on torture by the CIA.

"The so-called 'human rights issue' in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is politically fabricated and, therefore, it is not at all relevant to the regional or international peace and security," North Korean U.N. Ambassador Ja Song Nam wrote in a letter to the council.

"The issue of CIA torture crimes committed by the United States needs to be urgently addressed in the Security Council since it threatens to have an imminent and destabilizing impact on the maintenance of international peace and security," he added.

A U.S. Senate report released last week found that the CIA misled the White House and public about its torture of detainees after the Sept. 11 attacks and acted more brutally and pervasively than it had acknowledged.

North Korea called for the Security Council to establish "an ad-hoc investigation commission mandated to make a thorough probe into the CIA torture crimes and hold those responsible to account for their most serious human rights violations."

A U.N. committee last month urged the council to consider referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court, alleging crimes against humanity. China, likely supported by Russia, would probably veto any referral to the international court based in The Hague, diplomats say.

China's U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi said he opposed adding human rights in North Korea to the Security Council agenda.

"The situation on the Korean peninsula is so complex and so precarious (that) what the council should do is work towards maintaining peace and stability on Korean peninsula and not to do something on the contrary," he told reporters on Monday.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the issue should be dealt with by the U.N. Human Rights Council.

"If they have the meeting, I won't be heartbroken over it, but I think it's improper to do it at the Security Council," Churkin said on Monday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/accused-rights-abuses-north-korea-urges-un-meeting-003113249.html

[Gagaloo911 12,959]

Don't like N. Korea, but I agree with them in this case. They're a bunch of hypocrites, but then again so are we here in the U.S.

[ALX 170]

The CIA interrogation ceased awhile ago, the atrocities in Korea are ongoing. There's no use in doing something to the US when we can't go back and change it imo, we can just ensure it won't happen again.

 

N. Korea hates most of the world regardless so it's not like this revelation made an impact there.

[Wild 1,296]

The irony of N. Korea and Russia berating the U.S. for human rights issues of all things.

[RAMROD 116,995]

Funny, knowing how North Korea treated thwir own citizen.

If anyone need to be given penalty, NK should be first in line.