In a move that was expected by UN officials, China has defended North Korea, yet again -- this time against a report detailing the human rights abuses as crimes against humanity and recommendations to try the North Korean leaders by international court.

Brian Myers, a South Korea-based North Korea expert, said that "The world is finally waking up to the fact that North Korea is a far-right state, in that the regime derives its right to rule from a commitment to military might and racial purity.

"But for that very reason, the regime has never felt very embarrassed by criticism of its human rights record, and has reported sneeringly on that criticism to its own people. Perhaps it will realize that it cannot keep attracting investors and collaborators without making more of a pretence to progressive or leftist tendencies."

The recent UN report documents a very long list of North Korean crimes against humanity in several hundred pages, all evidence coming from testimonies by escaped North Koreans, in a list that includes "extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation."

"Of course we cannot accept this unreasonable criticism," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press briefing. "We believe that politicizing human rights issues is not conducive towards improving a country's human rights."

Although she did not clearly indicate whether China would veto in the case that the security council voted to move the case to the Hague international courts tribunal, she states that, "We believe that taking human rights issues to the International Criminal Court is not helpful to improving a country's human rights situation."

Although Chinese views toward North Korea have been frustrated at failed attempts to open the country to Chinese economic interests, as the Washington Post reports, China still prefers "the devil they know" because North Korea presents a crucial buffer against what China sees as an American attempt to encircle it.

"If the regime collapsed, China would either be forced to take over the running of the country, or risk the possibility that it is subsumed into South Korea, bringing pro-western forces right to the Chinese border."