DPRK FM Spokesman Slams U.S. for Pulling Up DPRK over Issue of Freedom of Religion

Pyongyang, October 16 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to the question raised by KCNA on Friday as regards the fact that the U.S. unreasonably pulled up the DPRK over the issue of freedom of religion: On October 14 the U.S. Department of State in its "2014 International Religious Freedom Report" malignantly slandered the DPRK as a "country of special concern" and "one of the worst human rights abusers." What is ridiculous is that the U.S. cited "the Inquiry Commission's report" on human rights in the DPRK whose hypocrisy had already been brought to light, and is calling for referring it to the International Criminal Court. The above-said farce staged by the U.S. once again clearly reveals its hostile intention to hurt the ideology and social system in the DPRK and impair the dignity and authority of the headquarters of the DPRK at any cost under the pretext of "protecting human rights". This is nothing but the last-ditch effort of the hostile forces taken aback by the more powerful demonstration of the unbreakable single-minded unity of the army and people of the DPRK around the leader through the celebrations of the 70th founding anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea. After sustaining setbacks in the political and military confrontation with the DPRK and a total failure of its policy toward the DPRK, the U.S. is resorting to the moves to destabilize it, peddling such issues as "human rights" and "freedom of religion" as the last expedient. It is trumpeting about "freedom of religion" though it has resorted to the moves for toppling the social systems of those countries courting its displeasure and destabilizing them in all parts of the world by abusing the freedom of religion. This is the height of hypocrisy. It has already been known well that wicked pseudo "religious organizations" at the prodding of the U.S. lured and kidnapped DPRK innocent citizens and reduced them to "defectors from the north" and are using them for anti-DPRK operations in a crafty and sinister manner. [2] The U.S. has not even elementary qualifications to talk about the freedom of religion and religious faith as it indiscriminately bombed Christian churches and killed many religionists during the past Korean war and is fostering contradictions among religions in every part of the world for the purpose of dominating the world. The U.S. is slandering the DPRK under all sorts of absurd pretexts, pursuant to the extreme hostile policy toward it. This is touching off surging hatred and resentment among the service personnel and people of the DPRK who regard Korean socialism centered on the popular masses as their life and soul. All the service personnel and people of the DPRK fully determined to devotedly defend the headquarters of the revolution will strongly react against the persistent "human rights" racket kicked up by the U.S. to bring down the social system of the DPRK, obsessed by the inveterate repugnancy and hostility toward it. -0