China failed today to block a UN Security Council meeting called to discuss the human rights crisis in North Korea despite support from Russia and three other countries.
China, Angola, Egypt, Russia and Venezuela voted to scrap the meeting, but nine countries including Britain, France and the United States supported the move in the 15-member council. Senegal abstained.
Beijing has failed three times to stop the meeting held annually at the Security Council since a UN commission of inquiry in 2014 accused Pyongyang of committing atrocities unparalleled in the modern world.
Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi argued that the council should focus on threats to global peace and security, saying North Korea's human rights situation should not be considered as such a menace.
"The Security Council is not a forum for discussing human rights issues and still less for the politicization of the human rights issues," he said.
This discussion is "detrimental, with no benefit whatsoever," he added, urging council members to "avoid making any rhetoric or actions that may provoke or lead to escalation of the tensions."
Pyongyang's sole ally and trade partner, China has long argued that international efforts should firmly focus on talks to denuclearise North Korea.
US Ambassador Samantha Power shot back that "it stretches credulity, really, to suggest... That the brutal governance practiced by the regime is neutral for international peace and security."
The UN commission of inquiry found compelling evidence of torture, execution and starvation in North Korea, where between 80,000 and 120,000 people are being held in prison camps.
The General Assembly has encouraged the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for war crimes investigation, but China is likely to block any such move with its veto power on the council.
Today's meeting follows last week's adoption of tougher sanctions against North Korea, including new measures to curb the reclusive state's coal exports to China, in response to Pyongyang's fifth and biggest nuclear test.
North Korea has been hit by six sets of UN sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006.
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