North Korea has accused European Union nations of human rights violations saying they were not qualified to criticise Pyongyang as they collaborated with the CIA's torture programme.
"EU and European countries have so far often found fault with other countries over their alleged human rights violations, behaving as if they were a 'model' in protecting human rights," an unnamed spokesman of North Korea's foreign ministry told the official Korean Central News Agency.
"But, this time, it was disclosed that most EU member states became servants in the US 'brutal human rights abuses'," it added, as noted by South Korean Yonhap News Agency.
The spokesman further cited the recently released US Senate Intelligence Committee report and said that 21 European nations, including Britain, was part of the CIA interrogation and took part in the torture meted out to terror suspects by allowing access to their sites as well as providing political support.
This comes days after North Korea blamed Washington of violating human rights immediately after the Senate report was released last week. Pyongyang said the revelations posed a major test to the credibility of the Security Council, which it accused "shut its eyes" to rights violations by one of its permanent members while discussing North Korea's rights record.
"If (the Security Council) wants to discuss the human rights issue, it should...call in to question the human rights abuses rampant in the US," a spokesman cited by the official KCNA news agency said.
Pyongyang is angry about EU's leading role in the UN resolution which has called for North Korea's referral to the International Court for its human rights issues. The resolution will be put to a vote at the UN General Assembly this week.
