S. Korean Authorities' Unethical Crimes Should Be Called into Question: DPRK FM Spokesman

Pyongyang, May 16 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA Sunday as regards the unsettled case of abduction of a group of DPRK citizens by the south Korean authorities: As known, the south Korean authorities, engrossed with the smear campaign against the DPRK, let the gangsters of the Intelligence Service commit the heinous terrorist act of alluring and abducting DPRK women citizens in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province of China in broad daylight in early April to south Korea. As soon as the case occurred, the DPRK strongly demanded the south Korean authorities unconditionally send back the abductees without delay and take a practical measure at once for helping their parents go to Seoul and meet their daughters face to face. Nevertheless, the south Korean authorities did not permit the elementary humanitarian demand of the parents but are talking about "voluntary defection from the north" while keeping the abductees in solitary cells and keeping them away from media. What matters is that the U.S. and the West are keeping mum about south Korea's institutional human rights abuses such as the heinous group allurement and abduction though they have groundlessly taken issue with other countries over their human rights whether they are true or false, while touting the "protection and promotion of human rights". The families of the abductees sent the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the president of the United Nations Human Rights Council the letters of indicting the south Korean authorities for their criminal act and demanding an immediate step. The UN and the international human rights organizations should bear in mind how they deal with this case will be a touchstone discerning the truth about "protection and promotion of human rights" touted by them, call into question the south Korean authorities' unethical crime and take a relevant step to send the abductees back to the folds of their family members as soon as possible. -0-