The United States and Western members of the UN General Assembly collectively slammed North Korea as the council discussed the hermit state's human rights record, overruling objections expressed by Russia and China.
Adding the alleged grave abuses by the communist nation to the council's agenda, US Ambassador to United Nations Samantha Power described the life inside North Korea as a "living nightmare" and dismissed a demand made by Pyongyang for a joint US-North Korea probe into the hacking of Sony Pictures. The US also shrugged off Pyongyong's threats to "blow up" the White House, if the US refused to the joint probe.
The meeting of the council came after a rare procedural vote that was sparked by China's objection to the including of North Korea into the agenda.
Though Russia and China voted against North Korea's inclusion in the council's agenda, there were 11 votes in favour for the same. As there are no vetoes in procedural votes of the council, the Chinese and Russian attempt to block the council's agenda was overruled.
Citing a UN report, US envoy Samantha Power said the North Koreans are living in the most atrocious condition. A report following a UN human rights enquiry in February said that ordinary North Koreans faced "unspeakable atrocities", including "deliberate starvation, forced labour, executions, torture" and also political repression.
North Korea has refused to cooperate with the report and has condemned its findings. It is also not attending the Security Council's meeting.
North Korean envoy Kim Song told AFP on Monday: "We cannot recognise the Security Council meeting. Its mandate is not human rights."
"We totally reject the decision to bring DPRK (North Korea's) human rights record to the UN Security Council," North Korean diplomat Kim Song told Reuters. "The United States always uses the issue of human rights as a political weapon to bring pressure on our country."
Internet Down
The UN meeting comes as a US-based internet performance firm said that North Korea was experiencing extensive internet outages. The net was back up on Tuesday after a more than nine-hour of outage, Dyn Research, a company that monitors internet performance, said.
The disruption came amid an escalating war of words between US and North Korea over the cyber attacks on Sony Pictures. North Korea has been expressing its anger in the past few weeks over the release of the movie 'The Interview' which narrates a fictional story related to the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by US intelligence agents.
