North Korea defended its controversial law dictating harsh penalties for consuming foreign media on Thursday, while admitting that it carries out public executions and imprisons perpetrators of “anti-state” crimes.

The DPRK government made the rare acknowledgement of its crackdown on outside media during the U.N.’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the country in Geneva, which examines the human rights record of member states every four to five years.

During the session on Thursday, U.S. Special Envoy on North Korean human rights Julie Turner called on Pyongyang to repeal its notoriousLaw on Rejecting Reactionary Ideology and Culture passed in 2020,