Here’s a new one from the North Korean propaganda mill. Who would believe Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency would be quoting a senior North Korean official accusing “the U.S. administration” of “McCarthyism”?

That favorite word of American academics whenever riled up about a crackdown, or even a rebuke, against leftist statements and protests has creeped into the North Korean lexicon via the North’s permanent representative at the UN’s Geneva office, Jo Chol Su.

“The behavior of the present U.S. Administration,” Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency, in a dispatch in English, quoted Mr. Jo as stating, “predicts the emergence of ‘McCarthyism’ of the 21st century version.”

Just how Mr. Jo defines “McCarthyism” is far from clear, but the specific reason for his outrage was a questionnaire sent by the Washington-based Office of Management and Budget to 36 UN agencies and organizations looking into whether they are anti-American or linked to countries hostile to America.

“Entities associated with communist, socialist, or totalitarian parties, or any party that espouses anti-American beliefs” are of special concern. Questions also focus on the extent of funding by four countries with which America faces perennial critical issues: China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba.

Perceiving “McCarthyism” in the quest to get to the bottom of who is paying for what, Mr. Jo went on a rhetorical binge.

Without naming President Trump, he accused “the U.S. administration” of attempting to “influence” UN organizations with “dozens of questions” on “communism, socialism, totalitarian or anti-U.S. force.” America, he said, is “bringing chaos and disorder to the international community with its unpredictable foreign policy … sparking off great uproar.”

In words that were presumably dictated from Pyongyang at the behest of Kim Jong-un or Mr. Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, Mr. Jo declared, “Such behavior of inciting confrontation against the international trend … deserves condemnation” and “the international community should remain vigilant” against “the unilateralism and arbitrary practices of the U.S.”

Yet where did Mr. Jo come up with the reference to “McCarthyism,” a legacy of the relentless pursuit of “communists” in the Department of State in the early 1950s by a Wisconsin senator, Joseph McCarthy? The word was often used to describe the tactics of right-wingers attacking those suspected of supporting or sympathizing with the communist regimes of the former Soviet Union and Communist China

These days,  the “McCarthyism” label often is bandied about in defense of Mr. Kim and his regime by pro-North activists in America who believe he’s unjustly accused of repressing his people. His defenders prefer not to mention that hundreds of thousands have been executed and imprisoned since his grandfather founded the regime in 1945.

Although McCarthy has faded from memory, “McCarthyism” survives as a code word meaning unfair bullying accusations against political enemies.

Another question is why Mr. Jo was delegated to issue such a statement. Why did it not emanate directly from Mr. Kim, his sister, or a spokesman at Pyongyang? One answer might be that Mr. Jo’s main job is to deal with periodic diatribes against North Korea’s human rights record at the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.

On Thursday, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, Elizabeth Salmon, addressing the Human Rights Council,  accused the North of imposing “strict laws” controlling “freedom of movement, work and freedom of expression of opinion” along with “harsh punishment including the death penalty and public execution.”

Noting North Korea’s deployment of soldiers to Ukraine, she said that the country’s “extreme militarization” is “sustained by hard labor,” while “45 percent of the population” — or 11.8 million people — are “undernourished.” North Korea, she said, should “take steps toward denuclearization” so more resources could be used for food.

Mr. Jo, invited to respond, remained silent. His statement the next day, winding up with his accusation of “McCarthyism” under Mr. Trump, was his best response.