SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea on Saturday demanded the United States rescind its recent appointment of a special envoy on human rights in the communist country, warning the position could hurt international efforts to end the North's nuclear weapons program.Washington announced last week that Jay Lefkowitz, a former adviser to President Bush, will be in charge of promoting efforts to ``improve the human rights of the long-suffering North Korean people.'' The new post is part of the North Korean Human Rights Act passed by the Senate last year. The legislation provides $24 million a year in humanitarian aid for North Koreans, mostly for refugees.
North Korea said the appointment ``is an act of bad omen that hurts our generous and flexible efforts to resolve the nuclear problem'' and demanded the envoy be ``removed immediately.'' ``It is an extremely challenging and dangerous act for the U.S. ... to take its intention to topple our regime into the stage of detailed action,'' the North's state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by its official Korean Central News Agency.
| We're taking 'detailed action' to topple the NKors? About bloody time! |