North Korea calls U.N. rights investigator report 'malicious slander'

A group of people bow at the base of the giant bronze statue of the state founder and 'Great Leader' Kim-Il Sung in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang February 26, 2008. REUTERS/David Gray/Files

SEOUL (Reuters) - A report this month by a United Nations rights investigator expressing concern about the human rights and humanitarian situation in North Korea is "malicious slander", a North Korean organisation said on Tuesday.

In his latest report, Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said the country's most vulnerable people risk starvation after it slipped deeper into isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.