PYONGYANG, August 19. /ITAR-TASS/. North Korean (DPRK) Foreign Ministry’s spokesman has assailed US Secretary of State John Kerry for anti-DPRK statements, North Korean newspapers write on Tuesday.

The diplomat attacked the US secretary of state who in his recent speech at the Asian Policy forum in Hawaii addressed the North Korean “human rights issue".

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said Kerry’s statement, based on “sheer lies and groundless data", is another “undisguised expression of the US inveterate repugnancy and hostile policy toward the DPRK.”

According to the DPRK diplomat, Kerry seeks, using “absurd slander” to “tarnish the DPRK’s image at any cost and stir up the international understanding that its social system is the object to be removed by force of arms in a bid to justify the US and South Korean warmongers’ military threat.” It is not accidental, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said, that Kerry made his statement on the “DPRK human rights issue” before the kick-off of the Ulji Freedom Guardian joint military exercises together with the South Korean troops that are aimed against North Korea.

“Over the recent years, the US has become noisy in its anti-DPRK “human rights” racket in pursuance of its design to bring down the social system of the DPRK under the pretext of human rights issue,” the diplomat said. However, the “DPRK will successfully resist Washington’s attempts to damage its interests under the pretext of human rights protection, despite the pressure exerted on the DPRK, including on the nuclear issue,” he added.

It his Hawaii speech Kerry dwelt on the so-called refocusing of the US strategy to the Asia-Pacific region. He said, in particular, that President Obama asked him to double efforts with the aim of strengthening relations with the Asia-Pacific countries. In particular, these efforts should be focused on attaining sustainable economic growth, energy efficiency, regional cooperation development, human rights protection and promotion of democracy.