U.S. Threatens To Call U.N. Security On North Korean Delegation

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UNITED NATIONS — A panel of North Korean defectors speaking out on human rights abuses in their former country was interrupted by a small group of diplomats from North Korea's U.N. mission on Thursday, leading to the U.S. Ambassador threatening to have the North Korean delegation forcibly removed.The event — "Victims Voices: A Conversation on North Korean Human Rights," organized by the United States and South Korea — featured three former North Korean citizens recounting tales of abuses they and their family suffered while in the isolated country. Early on in their testimony, however, a delegation from North Korea began to speak, attempting to drown out the panel.




















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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power ordered the delegation's microphone be shut off, but the North Koreans continued reading out their remarks. In response, several other North Korean defectors in the crowd began shouting in Korean, denouncing the officials."We are calling U.N. security," Power informed the delegation over the din, offering to allow the North Koreans to speak at the time that had previously been allotted to them following the panel's remarks. Instead, the North Korean diplomats simply finished their statement — which was inaudible due to the cut microphone — and walked out of the room. According to one report, the delegation was accompanied by U.N. security guards as they left."I want to thank those in the audience for your patience of the interruption of the DPRK," Power said at the end of the event, using the shortened version of North Korea's official name, adding that "such statements are totally self discrediting." She also told the assembled defectors that it "must be chilling" to face down the regime shouting them down again.




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