UN point man on N. Korean human rights urges building communication line with Pyongyang

Cooperation with North Korea should be sought as the international community seeks to address the serious human rights situation in the country, the United Nations' point man on the issue said Tuesday, calling for the establishment of a line of communication with the Pyongyang regime.

"It has been quite challenging for my predecessors to engage North Korean authorities and I am very well aware of this situation," the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Tomas Ojea Quintana said in a press conference.

The rapporteur stressed that one main challenge of the U.N.'s North Korea human rights agenda is addressing accountability for the dire human rights situation in the reclusive country, but the issue of gaining access to the government there is even more difficult.

Currently, the official is keeping in contact with the North Korean representative based in Geneva to get to the bottom of the human rights issues, but "there's a need to establish a channel of communication between my side and the DPRK authorities," Quintana noted. "There's a need to go step by step and gradually try to build this channel of communication."

"My past experience as the Myanmar human rights rapporteur tells me how relevant is the possibility to establish a dialogue with concerned authorities. Therefore it is my obligation also as the rapporteur to try cooperation with the DPRK," he added.

The Argentine lawyer is visiting South Korea on the initial leg of his first Northeast Asia visit since he took office in August.

In Seoul, he discussed North Korea human rights issues with South Korean authorities and met with North Korean defectors who settled in the South, as he is preparing for a U.N. report on the North Korean issue slated for March.

On Wednesday, he is scheduled to fly to Japan on the next leg of his trip to the region.

His visit came as the U.N. General Assembly's Third Committee adopted a North Korea human rights resolution last week, which called for the referral of the North Korean leadership to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in the strongest-ever wording. The resolution will be put up for passage at a plenary General Assembly meeting next month.

"The resolution recently passed by the U.N. General Assembly is most relevant in reaffirming the importance of accountability," he said of the adoption of the resolution.

The accountability issue remains an important agenda item for the U.N., he highlighted, adding that the issue will be discussed more in detail when a group of independent experts on North Korean human rights presents their own report to the U.N. next March.

"Accountability measures must be discussed at the same time as cooperation with the DPRK is sought," Quintana noted.

He also cited "rampant corruption" in various levels of the North Korean regime as well as escalating inter-Korean tensions as major obstacles to the fulfillment of North Korean human rights. (Yonhap)