You know your country is in a sorry state when North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has a dig at you.
And that's precisely what has happened following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
North Korea's foreign ministry has lashed out at the United States' 'miserable' human rights record, according to a statement by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
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"It is the miserable human rights situation of the US where children lose their lives by gun-related crime at all hours when they are about to come into bud," the foreign ministry said, citing the Washington Post, ABC, and NBC reports on gun violence.
The DPRK statement added: "Despite all these facts, the US often picks faults with the human rights situation in other countries … The US had better take care of its own affairs rife with immorality and depravity before 'meddling' in other’s affairs."
The DPRK's words come as US President Joe Biden grapples with the gun lobby to rework America's gun legislation.
North Korea reports quite frequently on US gun crime in school, providing statements to the Pyongyang Times about the Sandy Hook slayings and a shooting in Indianapolis.
As for North Korea's accusations of 'meddling', the DPRK may be referring to the USA's weapons exchange with Ukraine against Russia, one of North Korea's few allies.
Russian TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov, also known as Putin's mouthpiece, recently reinforced the Kremlin's capability and willingness to use nuclear weapons if the Western threat persists.
“If people weren’t dying, this would be the funniest comedy,” he said, as per a translation by Russian Media Monitor.
He added that the planet is edging closer to another 'bloody page of world history'.
As for North Korea's own human rights violations, Pyongyang has long rejected international criticism of its own well-documented human rights violations.
In 2014, a United Nations report concluded Pyongyang's abuses '[do] not have any parallel in the contemporary world'.
According to NK News, North Korean state media rehashed a Chinese report on the human rights situation in the US only last week.
The DPRK also hut out at the European Union, after the European Parliament handed down a fresh report on North Korea's wide-ranging human rights violations.
The DRPK dubbed the EU a 'gang of liars', in an NK News report.
North Korea faces both unilateral and multilateral sanctions for its weapons programs, but also sanctions from the US, as per Reuters.
The DPRK also faces EU sanctions for human rights violations that include state-sponsored murder, torture and forced labor, as per the European Council.
Topics: US News, Kim Jong-un
Rachel Lang