South Korea has renewed its calls at the U.N. General Assembly meeting for North Korea to improve its human rights situation, a Seoul official said Saturday, as a U.N. special rapporteur saw "no improvement" in human rights under the North's new leadership.
Seoul raised the issue of Pyongyang's human rights record at the Friday meeting of the U.N. General Assembly's Third Committee, which focuses on human rights issues, in New York, the foreign ministry official said.
In a report to the Third Committee meeting, U.N. special rapporteur on the North's human rights Marzuki Darusman, said, "Overall, there was no improvement in the human rights situation in the DPRK (North Korea)." Darsuman also urged the North to divert money from its military to help improve the livelihoods of its general populace.
South Korea "welcomed a plan by Darusman to further review North Korea's political prison camps and urged North Korea to implement his recommendations" at the U.N. meeting, the official said on the condition of anonymity.
North Korea has long been labeled one of the worst human rights violators in the world. The regime does not tolerate dissent, holds hundreds of thousands of people in political prison camps and keeps tight control over outside information.
While North Korea has officially denied the existence of political prison camps, Pyongyang is believed to have up to 200,000 people in hidden, Soviet-style gulags where torture and executions are routine and starvation is widespread.
Pyongyang has bristled at any criticism of its human rights record, however, denouncing such talk as part of U.S.-led attempts to topple the regime. (Yonhap)