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U.N. office on N. Korean human rights signs lease contract with Seoul

U.N. office on N. Korean human rights signs lease contract with Seoul

Posted September. 23, 2015 06:57,   

한국어

The first United Nations office in South Korea to systematically investigate human rights violations in North Korea has signed an official lease contract with the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Monday. The signing, which came three months after the opening of the office, has removed the last remaining stumbling block, adding momentum to discussions of the North`s dire human rights situation.

The U.N. office, which is housed in the Seoul-owned Global Center building in downtown area of the South Korean capital, held an opening ceremony on June 23, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra`ad Al Hussein present. However, the office had not been able to sign a contract for the use of the building due to delays in administrative coordination with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, forcing the office`s employees to work at coffee shops or other temporary workplaces. The signing of the contract will allow the office to "officially" carry out its business.

On Monday (local time), the U.N. Commission on Human Rights held a forum on the North`s human rights situation at the U.N. European Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. It was the U.N. Human Rights Commission`s first official forum on the North`s human rights rather than an auxiliary event as part of a bigger occasion. Attention is drawn to whether the international human rights body, which usually dealt with the North Korean human rights in March, will put the issue on agenda both in the first and second half of the year. On Tuesday, a younger brother of Megumi Yokota, a Japanese citizen abducted by North Korea decades ago, testified at a symposium organized by a nongovernmental organization.

The U.N. General Assembly being held in New York will also discuss the North Korean human rights issue. The results will be adopted as a resolution around November. North Korea`s Foreign Minister Yi Su Yong will attend the meeting for the second consecutive year. The Tuesday`s edition of the North`s Rodong Sinmun claimed that the United States was "the world`s worst tundra of human rights" and should not accuse other countries of human rights violations.



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