N. Korea says dialogue impossible until human rights issue dropped

(ATTN: UPDATES with additional background)
SEOUL, March 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korea will not talk to South Korea or the
United States until they stop accusing the communist nation of being a human
rights violator, the North said Friday, adding inter-Korean relations are already
at a point where "war may break out at any moment."
"There can be no 'human rights' issue in the DPRK in the light of the nature of
its socialist system or its mission and aim, as it is the most dignified
socialist system centered on the popular masses, which was chosen by the Korean
people themselves and is being protected by them as their faith," an unidentified
spokesman for the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said
in a statement. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea.
The statement, carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency, comes after
Seoul earlier Friday said it has co-sponsored a United Nations resolution
condemning North Korea's human rights abuses.
Officials at the South Korean foreign ministry said the resolution will likely be
put to a vote next week.
The U.S. State Department has also labeled Pyongyang as one of the world's worst
human rights violators in its annual human rights report published earlier this
month.
"There is the human rights issue in South Korea where even the people's
elementary right to existence, to say nothing of their political right, is being
ruthlessly violated," the spokesman for the North Korean organization said.
The spokesman also claimed Seoul and Washington are making false accusations
while "not uttering even a word" about their own human rights violations.
"This is, indeed, a shameless and ridiculous act," the statement said.
"There can be neither dialogue nor the normalization of the inter-Korean
relations as long as the Lee group kicks up the 'human rights' ruckus against the
DPRK," it added, referring to Seoul's Lee Myung-bak administration as the "Lee
group."
In an apparently related development, Pyongyang recently rejected a U.S. offer to
provide humanitarian food aid while also ordering the departure of American aid
groups that have been working to help the impoverished nation feed its population
of 24 million.
Robert Wood, spokesman for the State Department, said Wednesday the North gave no
reason for the rejection, leading to speculation the move was part of Pyongyang's
recent protest over a joint South Korea-U.S. military exercise that ended earlier
Friday.
The relationship between the two Koreas quickly deteriorated when the South
Korean president was inaugurated about 13 months ago, while tension has
significantly intensified in recent days amid Pyongyang's protest over the joint
military drills, Key Resolve and Foal Eagle.
The spokesman said raising human rights issues with the North is a "grave
provocation to the DPRK and a treacherous act of driving the inter-Korean
relations to such a dangerous phase that a war may break out any moment."
The two Koreas technically remain at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended only
with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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