NK on Trump: US billionaires club pursuing racist policies

North Korea struck back at the US on Wednesday, accusing the Trump administration of being a billionaires’ club that harbors a “policy of racism” while denying freedom of the press and health coverage to citizens.

The “White Paper on Human Rights Violations in the US in 2017,” was issued by the Institute of International Studies in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and circulated by its diplomatic mission in Geneva.

It did not refer to the row between North Korea and the US and its allies over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs, or to the international sanctions imposed against it.

President Donald Trump, in his first State of Union speech to Congress on Tuesday, branded North Korea’s leadership “depraved.”

He told Americans that its pursuit of nuclear missiles could “very soon threaten our homeland” and vowed a continued campaign to prevent that.

“Racial discrimination and misanthropy are serious maladies inherent to the social system of the US, and they have been aggravated since Trump took office,” the North Korean paper said.

“The racial violence that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12 is a typical example of the acme of the current administration’s policy of racism,” it said.

Trump, who took office a year ago, had filled his cabinet with billionaires, it said, citing US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnunchin and Secretary of Defense James Mattis.