Pyongyang, April 27 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) released the following press statement on Saturday:

The U.S. again malignantly slandered the DPRK through the publication of "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2023".

The DPRK Foreign Ministry resolutely denounces and rejects the U.S. Department of State's publication of "reports on human rights", full of lies, fabrications, prejudice and hostility, and strongly warns the U.S. to stop its illegal interference in the sovereignty and internal affairs of the DPRK.

The U.S. farce of making "reports on human rights" has nothing to do with ensuring genuine human rights, and it is nothing but basic data necessary for tarnishing the image of other countries incurring its displeasure and for justifying its interference in their internal affairs and scheme to bring down their social systems.

If the U.S. Department of State regards it as its own business which can never be overlooked to make "reports on human rights", it will be reasonable to write a confession frankly admitting the human rights situation in the U.S. before anything else and then to be judged fairly by other countries.

Whenever the U.S. finds fault with other countries with its own "human rights standard", the international community first of all examine the horrible human rights situation of the U.S. widely recognized as the worst in the world.

Even at this moment, it is the U.S. which is fostering massacres of innocent civilians through overseas military aid of tens of billions of U.S. dollars and it is also the U.S. where the serious human rights abuses such as institutional suppression of its people, confrontations between nations, races and religions and all kinds of crimes of violence and maltreatment of immigrants are rampant.

The assertion about the influx of information into the DPRK, recently made by high-ranking officials of the Biden administration including the "envoy for the human rights issue" of the U.S. State Department whenever an opportunity presents itself, is a manifestation of the extremely sinister political plot and a dangerous political provocation to undermine the social system in the DPRK in the long-run.

Now that the U.S. is hell-bent on hostile acts against the DPRK, regarding "human rights" racket as the main means of aggression, together with military threat, the DPRK will have to take into consideration the resolute and decisive option for defending the sovereignty and security of the state in an all-round way.

There is no limit to the DPRK's counteraction for defending its social system, sovereignty and national interests. -0-

www.kcna.kp (Juche113.4.27.)