North Korea, one of the worst human rights offenders in the world, came out with a statement condemning Israel for “killing children.” This blood libel coincided with a day established by the UN 40 years ago as another attempt to smear Israel for human rights offenses that, like the atrocities in the recent conflict, had actually been carried out by the “Palestinians.”

North Korea condemns Israel

“Israel’s horrific crime of killing the bud-like children, yet to be bloomed, is a severe challenge to the future of humankind and a crime against humanity,” the statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry read. “It is no exaggeration to say that the whole Gaza Strip has turned into a huge human slaughterhouse and a place of massacring children,” the ministry continued. “Soon after the end of the bombardment, [Israel Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and the Israeli authorities are trying to conceal their crime of killing even the children.”

North Korea released its statement on June 4, timed to be released on the UN’s International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression which was expressly created to demonize Israel. Established in the wake of Israel’s military incursion into Lebanon in 1982, the UN General Assembly declared that it was “appalled at the great number of innocent Palestinian and Lebanese children victims of Israel’s acts of aggression.” The UN failed to recognize the Palestinian acts of terrorism targeting civilians that triggered Israel’s actions.

North Korea claimed that international media is “strongly condemning Israel for continuing to massacre children, pointing at Israel as a culprit of the expulsion of Palestinians, illegal settlement expansion and sowing the seeds of hatred by suppressing their peaceful praying ceremony.”

It should be noted that investigations into the recent Israel-Gaza conflict revealed that many of the civilian casualties in Gaza were caused by Hamas rocket shortfalls, a fact that was largely ignored by international media. Hamas openly admits to using its own civilians as human shields.

North Korea’s history of hating Israel

North Korea’s statement comes despite its refusal to officially recognize Israel.  Since 1988 it recognizes the sovereignty of the non-existent State of Palestine over all of Israel. North Korea has provided aid to Israel’s enemies including pilots who fought for Egypt during the Yom Kippur War. North Korea has supplied missile and weapons technology to Iran, Syria, Libya, and Egypt. North Korea also aids Syria in its nuclear and chemical weapons programs and in 2007, ten North Koreans were killed when the Israeli Air Force carried out an airstrike against a nuclear reactor construction site in the Deir ez-Zor region of Syria. Yasser Arafat made several visits to North Korea and openly regarded the ruling Kim family as an important ally of anti-Zionism. It has long been suspected that cash-strapped North Korea sells weapons to Hamas and advises them on tunnel building. 

It should be noted that North Korea’s human rights record is often considered to be the worst in the world and has been globally condemned by the US,  the United Nations, and the European Union. Its supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, has entirely rejected any concept of civil rights for people who oppose the regime, relying heavily on a system of informants and brutal secret police. Freedom of the press, expression, and religion do not exist in North Korea and neither do labor rights. Forced prostitution and forced abortion also are practiced. Internment camps exist for political prisoners and public executions are carried out.