North Korea strongly denounced a conference to be held in Washington marking the first anniversary of the United Nations report on the country’s human rights abuses.
 
In a statement issued by North Korea’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations on Monday, the North claimed the upcoming conference is an outcome of Washington’s hostile policies toward the regime.
 
The North called the event on Tuesday 'garbage,' and said it symbolizes Washington’s efforts to get out of a predicament created by the false testimony of North Korean defector Shin Dong-hyuk. 
 
The North also said that Washington ignored its call for participation in the conference. 
 
It said if the U.S. is really interested in human rights, it should take issue with controversial interrogation techniques by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and human rights abuses in South Korea by its anti-North National Security Law.
 
The participants in the conference, to be hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), include Michael Kirby, the head of the UN Commission of Inquiry, which drafted the report on the North’s human rights in February 2014.
 
Among the other attendees are Marzuki Darusman, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, Robert King, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, and Lee Jung-hoon, the South Korean Ambassador for Human Rights.