Senior North Korean Official Visits London to Lobby Against International Pressure Over Pyongyang's Human Rights Abuses
A senior North Korean diplomat went to London earlier this December to lobby against international pressure on the state over alleged human rights abuses, an official announced Friday.
The Korea Herald reported Saturday that the three-day trip to London on Dec. 9 to 11 was part of a European diplomatic mission in which North Korea's Foreign Ministry general for European affairs Kim Son Gyong visited also Germany, Switzerland, Poland and Belgium.
While in London, Kim attended meetings with Fiona Bruce, a member of United Kingdom's parliament who co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group North Korea. According to an official at the South Korean Embassy, Kim also met with officials at the foreign ministry.
The visit follows the resolution passed by the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly on Nov. 19 which stated that, for the second year in a row, North Korea is being summoned to the International Criminal Court for human rights violations. This led to the second meeting held by the U.N. Security Council about the human rights issues reportedly prevalent in North Korea. The resolution was formally adopted by the Generally Assembly on Dec. 18.
During the meetings, Kim reportedly expressed that North Korea is taking up measures to improve its human rights record, Korea Times noted Saturday.
Kim also contended that the landmark U.N. Commission of Inquiry's report on Pyongyang's human rights situation last year contained one-sided accounts from North Korean defectors.
North Korean has been labeled by human rights watchdogs as one of the worst human rights offenders. The communist state has been said to hold hundreds of people in political prison camps while maintaining tight control of information from outside the country.
The U.S. State Department also reported in June that North Korea's human rights record remained one of the worst in the world in 2014 as the country reportedly held public execution, used torture, and made other violations.
