U.S. congresswoman Illeana Ros-Lehtinen is criticizing the United Nations for choosing North Korea as the rotating chairman of its disarmament body.

North Korea was named to the post for four weeks during the U.N. disarmament conference in Geneva Tuesday.

Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican who chairs the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the move demonstrates "how backward the U.N. has become."

She said North Korea assuming the rotating presidency of the U.N. disarmament conference is a "classic example of the fox guarding the hen house."

The executive director of the human rights group U.N. Watch Hillel Neuer also told Fox News that "it's common sense that a disarmament body should not be headed by the world's arch-villain on illegal weapons and nuclear proliferation."

He called on the U.S. and Europe to protest against the appointment.

An official of the North Korean representative to the U.N. responded to the criticisms, saying that Western nations refuse to recognize that North Korea is also fighting for disarmament.

The 65-member U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva is chaired by six nations each year in alphabetical order. Each country serves the presidency for four weeks.