The event organized by the U.S. mission to the U.N. in New York featured several speakers, including the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, and three North Korean defectors.
Three diplomats from the North Korean mission to the U.N. attended the event. One of them, Ri Song Chol, a counselor at the North Korean mission, unexpectedly read a statement after a North Korean defector spoke.
Power tried to stop Ri, reminding him he was informed before the event that he would be given a chance to speak. The North Korean diplomat ignored her plea and went on reading the statement, which rejected international criticism of Pyongyang’s human rights violations. He also accused the defectors of betraying “their parents, brothers and sisters and their homeland.”