UN Expresses Concern Over North Korea's Extreme Militarization
On the 25th (local time), the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted the final results of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) assessing the human rights situation in North Korea. The verification process concluded with North Korea rejecting about half of the UN's recommendations.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the results of the 4th cycle UPR for North Korea, conducted in November last year, were adopted on this day. The UPR is a procedure in which 193 UN member states review each other's human rights situations.
The UPR included recommendations from UN member states to improve human rights in North Korea, such as South Korea's recommendations urging the immediate resolution of issues related to abductees, detainees, prisoners of war, and separated families, as well as adherence to the principle of non-refoulement. Other recommendations included ratification of the Convention Against Torture and the elimination of discrimination against women.
However, North Korea expressed rejection of 144 out of 294 recommendations.
Yoon Sung-deok, South Korea's ambassador to Geneva, expressed regret that North Korea rejected half of the recommendations presented by UN member states and all recommendations presented by South Korea, stating, "We urge North Korea to acknowledge the international community's recommendations and make sincere efforts to implement them."
He also emphasized, "We express serious concern about the negative impact of North Korea's extreme militarization on the human rights situation," and urged North Korea to cooperate with UN human rights bodies and constructively participate in the review of the State Party report on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities scheduled for August."
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