DPRK slams S Korea for turning blind eye to CIA torture

PYONGYANG -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday slammed Republic of  Korea (ROK) for "becoming all the more desperate in its anti-DPRK human rights 'racket'" while turning a blind eye to CIA torture.

"The truth behind the heinous unethical tortures practised by the notorious CIA against prisoners in its secret jails has been disclosed recently, stunning the world public," a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

On Dec. 9, the US Senate Intelligence Committee released part of a lengthy report, which included key findings about the CIA's aggressive questioning and torture of detainees during detention and interrogation after the terrorist attacks in 2001.

But Seoul "keeps utter silence" to the human rights abuses in the United States and "dances to the tune" of Washington, said the spokesman.

In the statement, Pyongyang called the anti-DPRK human rights "racket" the "last-ditch effort to stir up the atmosphere of international pressure upon the DPRK."

If the South Korean authorities are truly concerned about human rights, the spokesman stressed, they ought not to overlook human rights violations in the United States but only hype the DPRK's human rights issue which is "non-existent."