SEOUL: North Korea on Tuesday hit back at a latest UN resolution that condemned Pyongyang’s rights abuses, calling it a “serious... provocation” that would undermine peace efforts on the Korean peninsula.
The UN General Assembly adopted last week a resolution — which passed by consensus without a vote — condemning the “systematic, widespread and gross” human rights violations in the isolated North.
The impoverished but nuclear-armed nation, ruled by the Kim family through three generations, has been accused of state-sanctioned abuses including torture, rape and extrajudicial killings.
It marked the 14th consecutive year the UN has passed such a document. The North has constantly denied any rights abuses in the country and labelled the UN criticisms as smear campaigns aimed at undermining its leadership.
The North’s state-run Rodong newspaper slammed the latest resolution as a “serious political provocation against the (North) and a vicious move to tarnish its international image.”
“The wicked intention of the US... in getting vocal about the non-existent ‘human rights issue’ of the DPRK is to broaden the scope of the sanctions and pressure and escalate them,” it said in an editorial, using the North’s official name.
The editorial also lashed out at a “thoughtless” South Korea for backing the UN bill — a move that would be “tarnishing the atmosphere of improving the north-south ties.”
Washington had separately sought to organize a Security Council meeting on human rights in the North but gave up on the option earlier this month because it was unsure of the support it would get from partners.
But the US hopes to hold the meeting next month with the arrival of new non-permanent council members that could be more favorable to doing so.
The South’s President Moon Jae-in has advocated dialogue with the North to nudge it to denuclearization negotiations and has met with its leader Kim Jong Un three times this year.
Kim also met with US President Donald Trump in a historic summit in June but progress has stalled with both sides accusing each other of dragging their feet and acting in bad faith.
North Korea blasts UN resolution on rights abuse
North Korea blasts UN resolution on rights abuse
- The North’s state-run Rodong newspaper slammed the latest resolution as a “serious political provocation against the (North) and a vicious move to tarnish its international image”
Spain fines Airbnb 64 mn euros for posting banned properties
- The fine is final, the consumer affairs ministry said in a statement, adding the US holiday-rental giant must “correct the violations by deleting illegal content“
MADRID: Spain’s leftist government said Monday it had fined Airbnb more than 64 million euros ($75 million), notably for posting listings for banned rental properties, at a time the country faces a housing crisis.
The fine is final, the consumer affairs ministry said in a statement, adding the US holiday-rental giant must “correct the violations by deleting illegal content.”
The ministry said 65,122 adverts on Airbnb breached consumer rules, including the promotion of properties without a license or those whose license number did not match with data in registers.
The fine is equivalent to six times the illegal profit made by Airbnb between the time the company was warned about the offending adverts and before they were taken down, the ministry added.
A tourism boom has driven the buoyant Spanish economy but fueled local concern about increasingly scarce and unaffordable housing, a top priority for the minority coalition government.
The world’s second most-visited country hosted a record 94 million foreign tourists in 2024 and is on course to surpass that figure this year.
But residents of hotspots such as Barcelona blame short-term rentals for the housing crisis and changing their neighborhoods.
In June, the consumer rights ministry also ordered online accommodation giant Booking.com to take down more than 4,000 illegal adverts.
“There are thousands of families who are living on the edge due to housing, while a few get rich with business models that expel people from their homes,” far-left consumer rights minister Pablo Bustinduy said in the ministry statement.
“We’ll prove it as many times as necessary: no company, no matter how big or powerful, is above the law. Even less so when it comes to housing,” he added on social network Bluesky.
