N. Korea slams Seoul's decision to organize N.K. human rights panel

SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Yonhap) -- Pyongyang blasted South Korea for its decision to create a special panel on North Korean human rights, calling the move an "unpardonable provocation."

"We solemnly denounce the anti-DPRK human rights fuss by the Lee Myung-bak Group,
labeling it as a vicious profanity of our dignity and system and another
unpardonable provocation toward us," the Democratic Front for the Reunification
of the Fatherland said in a statement Sunday.
The statement, carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA),
came five days after the South's National Human Rights Commission took on a
politically sensitive issue by launching a special subcommittee dedicated to
examining human rights conditions in the North.
Since taking office in February, President Lee has vowed not to shy away from
raising the issue of North Korean human rights, breaking away from the policies
of his two liberal predecessors who refrained from doing so to in order to not
provoke the communist neighbor.
"The move once again unveiled the pro-U.S. sycophantic and anti-DPRK
confrontational nature of the treachery group which have been mad at plotting to
do harm and slandering us, taking advantage of the anti-DPRK human rights fuss by
the United States," said the North's quasi-governmental propaganda group.
Pyongyang is taking the move seriously as it follows a reaffirmation made by Lee
during an August summit with U.S. President George W. Bush to make meaningful
progress on North Korean human rights, the statement said.
"We will never pardon and sternly punish those who are trying to drive the
North-South relations to the phase of thorny confrontation, defaming our
socialist political system which is our dignity and life."
sshim@yna.co.kr
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