Criticism of China was part of the report by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, released Monday.
By citing China, the UN ensured that China will use its Security Council veto to block action on the report’s recommendations, predicts international affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe. An excerpt of his new column:
By emphasizing China’s complicity in the unparalleled atrocities by the North Korean regime of its people, United Nations investigators have doubtless ensured Beijing will use its Security Council veto to block further action.
Beijing has reacted angrily to the commission’s findings and recommendations, which are highly critical of China’s treatment of North Korean refugees who have fled across the border.
Chinese authorities regularly forcibly return these people, knowing they will be mistreated, tortured or killed. Beijing’s actions, says the commission, could be called “aiding and abetting crimes against humanity.”
Beijing’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying called the contents of the UN report “unreasonable criticism …
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