DPRK denounces human rights conference in U.S.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday denounced a human rights conference held Tuesday in Washington discussing Pyongyang's human rights record, accusing the United States of ignoring its request to attend the meeting.

"The U.S. staged a farce malignantly slandering the DPRK, repeating the tattered false data," the official KCNA news agency quoted a spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry as saying.

The spokesman said in a statement that Pyongyang had officially informed Washington of its demand for attendance at the conference, which the United States said was a nongovernmental one, but the request was turned down by Washington.

The spokesman urged the United States and its allied forces to halt such a human rights "racket" against the DPRK and mind the human rights problems in their own countries.

On Nov. 18, 2014, the Third Committee of the 69th United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution that recommended the Security Council refer the DPRK to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

However, Pyongyang insisted the resolution was based on false testimonies of "defectors" from the north and demanded the resolution be revoked. Enditem