18 October 2015•Update: 20 October 2015
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
North Korea vowed Sunday to "foil" an ongoing attempt to uncover and resolve its human rights abuses.
South Korea and the United States ramped up their pressure at a presidents' summit in Washington Friday.
A joint statement from Park Geun-hye and Barack Obama insisted that both nations " join the international community in condemning the deplorable human rights situation in North Korea."
The two leaders referred to a 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry report, which reached a particularly damning assessment of social oppression in the North.
Abuses based on eyewitness accounts and satellite imagery include public executions and widespread torture at massive political prison camps.
Generations of families are allegedly targeted for any perceived lack of loyalty to the regime in North Korea, which is led by dictator Kim Jong-un -- the grandson of the authoritarian state's founder Kim Il-sung.
Earlier this year, a UN human rights office was set up just over 50 kilometers from the inter-Korean border in the South's capital Seoul, where the testimony of thousands of North Korean defectors can be freely gathered.
South Korea and the U.S. were reportedly joined by partner nations in working on a new resolution last week to refer Kim Jong-un to the International Criminal Court. However, as with previous efforts to clamp down on Pyongyang's leaders, China and Russia are expected to stand in the way of any solid action by the U.N. Security Council.
Although Beijing has been vocal in its hopes for a denuclearized North Korea, Chinese economic cooperation has been vital to the Kim dynasty's survival and defectors crossing into China are often forcefully repatriated to a potentially grisly fate back in the North.
Perhaps emboldened by this support, and by its unique social values, a North Korean foreign ministry statement carried by state media Sunday resolved to "foil the hostile forces' reckless 'human rights' hysteria against it with the toughest counteraction."
The North has consistently dismissed allegations about its treatment of citizens as a conspiracy led by the U.S., which Pyongyang claims has a far worse history of human rights abuses.
