North Korea’s foreign ministry on Tuesday accused a Washington-based human rights group of being “under direct control of the U.S. government,” in its latest attempt to discredit organizations that document abuses and push for human rights protections in the DPRK.

The statement attributed to Kim Chung Hyok, a researcher at North Korea’s Association for Human Rights Studies, called the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) an “anti-DPRK front organization” — a label that the human rights group quickly rejected.