WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has refused to support a move by members of the United Nations Security Council to hold a discussion Tuesday on North Korea’s rampant human rights abuses, effectively blocking the meeting for the second year in a row.
The American action appeared aimed at muting international criticism of Pyongyang’s human rights record in the hope of preserving a tenuous diplomatic opening between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, the authoritarian leader of North Korea. Tensions between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim have broken out into the open in recent days.
On Monday, North Korea called Mr. Trump a “heedless and erratic old man” after the American president warned that Mr. Kim could lose “everything” if he resumed military provocations like nuclear or long-range missile tests before the 2020 elections in the United States.