According to the Geneva-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, a new United Nations office is to be set up in South Korea to systematically investigate the grave human rights violations in North Korea.

A spokesperson for the UN said that South Korea is an "important location to groups of victims of human rights abuses and civil society organisation focusing on human rights issues happening in North Korea.”

In their recent report, the UN Commission of Inquiry into North Korean human rights proposed the establishment of a field office. The UN Human Rights Council then adopted its most recent resolution on the matter, making provision for a field office that would focus exclusively on North Korean human rights matters.

Upon hearing the news of the establishment of the field office, Kwon Eun-Kyoung, Executive Secretary of the International Coalition to Stop Crimes against Humanity in North Korea, stated, “If one can say that hitherto it has been South Korean NGOs taking the central role in human rights activities, from now on it will become the field office. The office will work to confirm who is responsible for various North Korean human rights violations.”

SOURCE: The Guardian