North Korea has denounced recent remarks from Marzuki Darusman, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea.
 
A spokesman for the North’s Foreign Ministry told the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Thursday that Darusman’s remarks were gibberish that disrespected the dignity of the North’s supreme leadership. The spokesman stressed that the North would by no means forgive acts challenging its supreme dignity.
 
The spokesman said the U.S. concocted fictitious scripts to be read by North Korean escapees such as Shin Dong-hyuk and that the recent UN resolution denouncing the North’s human rights conditions was based on those lies. He added that the North would investigate all testimony given by escapees. 
 
Earlier on Monday, Darusman said in an interview with the Associated Press that he thinks some 80-thousand to 100-thousand political prisoners can be released immediately if the North’s “cult leadership system is completely dismantled.” He said “the only way to do that is if the Kim family is effectively displaced, is effectively removed from the scene, and a new leadership comes into place."