Pyongyang criticizes ex-prisoner over recanted story of 'abuses'

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea sought on Tuesday to discredit a man who claims to have been a prisoner in the DPRK who recently admitted inaccuracies in parts of a book about alleged abuses in the country of his birth.

The public backtracking by Shin Dong-hyuk proves that the entirety of his description of life in a DPRK prison was "scripted by (his) masters", said Pyongyang's official Uriminzokkiri website. It also said survivor reports published in a UN investigation must be "nullified".

The book's author Blaine Harden said Shin had changed the dates and places of some events described in the book.

Multiple attempts to contact Shin on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

DPRK diplomats at the UN circulated a DVD called Lie and Truth: Who is Shin Dong-hyuk? to discredit him by using footage of his own father speaking out against him and saying the family had never lived in a "so-called political prisoner camp". But Shin said the DVD merely proved that his father was still alive.

AP