North Korea dismissed the US as the “most heinous human rights abuser” for using its human rights agenda to put pressure on other countries and interfere in their internal affairs, its state media said Monday.

The Korea Central News Agency published an article written by Kim Jin-hui, a researcher with the Institute of International Studies of the DPRK, accusing the US of interfering in the sovereignty of countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Syria, crippling their economic development, in the name of human rights. DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“‘Human rights’ touted by the US are nothing but a trick to easily realize its wild ambition for dominating the world,” the report said. “The US is the most heinous human rights abuser in the world and severely disturbs the normal and peaceful development of sovereign states under the pretext of ‘human rights.’

“Unless the US’ hypocritical moves under the cloak of human rights protection are smashed, it is impossible for each country to achieve its independent development and to build a free, prosperous and new world,” it added.

The researcher listed examples such as the US blockade of Cuba, saying it has cost the Cuban people a trillion dollars over the past 60 years, as well as US criticism of China over affairs in the Xinjiang region and Hong Kong, saying it has compromised China’s political stability.

“No wonder, the US abuses the ‘human rights issues’ for putting political pressure on the anti-imperialist independent countries,” it said.

The outlet also condemned the US for criticizing other countries’ human rights records by issuing annual country reports on human rights practices, “to find fault with other countries as if it were a global human rights judge.”

In March, the US State Department published its 2020 report on human rights practices, which condemned the North Korean government for “arbitrary and unlawful” killings and other abuses, such as forced disappearances by the authorities.

Pyongyang continues to reject accusations of human rights abuses on its soil, and often blames international sanctions for a worsening humanitarian crisis.