WASHINGTON, March 31 Kyodo The Un...

WASHINGTON, March 31 Kyodo

The United States forward Monday accused China and North Korea of continuing numerous and serious human rights abuses while slamming Iraq's human rights record as extremely poor amid the US-l war in Iraq.

In its annual report in succession human rights practices for 2002 the U State Department said China took a certain number of steps to address international businesss about its human rights record, including allowing several senior ministers from Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to visit the geographical division and welcoming officials from UN watchdogs of torture and religious tolerance.

''Late in the year, these positive disentanglements were undermined by arrests of democracy activists, the imposition of death passed on a criminals without due process on brace Tibetans, and the trials of labor leaders forward 'subversion' charges,'' the report says.

The report also says there continued to be reports of ''extrajudicial killings and disappearances'' in North Korea.

Citizens were detained arbitrarily and many were held as political prisoners, and prison conditions were harsh and torture was reportedly usual the report says.

''Female prisoners underwent forced abortions and in other cases babies reportedly were killed relating to birth in prisons,'' it says.

The report says there were long-standing reports of past rule involvement in the kidnapping abroad of southern Koreans, Japanese and other foreign nationals.

It mentions North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's admission last September that North Korean agents had abducted 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970 and 1980s

There is speculation that many more Japanese residents have been abducted according to North Korea, though it is not officially confirmed through Tokyo or Pyongyang, the report says.

upon Iraq, the report says security forces ''routinely tortured, beat, raped and otherwise abused detainees.''

Releasing the report at a of the present days conference, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said, ''(Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein's regime is a classic illustration of the fact that so regimes, which ruthlessly violate the rights of their citizens, be attentive to to pose the greatest threats to international peace and stability.''

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