North Korea calls U.S 'kingpin of human rights abuses' following NSA leaks
Comments in the country's state newspaper Minju Joson accuse the U.S. of "espionage against mankind," according to Reuters.
North Korea has pounced on the recent revelations of NSA snooping to take a few digs at the United States.
Minju Joson, the country's state-run newspaper, lashed out at the U.S. in the wake of leaks from National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden that the NSA has been collecting data on U.S. citizens under a secret program known as PRISM. Snowden also said last week that the U.S. has been hacking into computers in China and Hong Kong for the past several years.
A commentary in Minju Joson called the U.S. "a kingpin of human rights abuses as it puts the world under its watch network and has conducted espionage against mankind," Reuters reported Tuesday. The newspaper said that the allegations by Snowden showed that U.S. citizens and foreigners had been "subject to the espionage that has been applied indiscriminately by the U.S. intelligence institution."
U.S. government officials are justifying PRISM as a means to track down terrorists. But Minju Joson called that "just a lame excuse to cover up (the) crime," Reuters added.
The NSA leaks do put the United States in an awkward position, but North Korea is like the pot calling the kettle black. The dictatorship keeps all aspects of its citizens' lives under intense scrutiny.