The issue of forced repatriation of defectors which recently burst onto the international agenda “amplified international interest in North Korean human rights,” according to Hyun Byung Chul, the head of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea.

Hyun was speaking at a symposium on the role of the international community in improving North Korean human rights organized by the NHRCK in concert with California State University and the Academy of Korean Studies on the 14th in Los Angeles.

“The number of foreign media companies that are asking for us to send them the recently published case book of North Korean human rights violations that includes things like the situation of Yodok Prison Camp is unimaginably large,” he said. ”The sympathy of external public opinion is every bit as important as that of our people in resolving the North Korea human rights problem.”

NHRCK has been assisting in the hosting of an international symposium on North Korean human rights since 2004.