The United Nations opened a field office in
Seoul to monitor and collect information on human rights abuses occurring in
North Korea. The office is the result of a landmark human rights report
published last year by a Commission of Inquiry [COI] overseen by the UN Office
of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [OHCHR].
Experts say the opening is a much welcomed
move especially since it gives the international body greater access to North
Korean defectors who can provide testimony on Pyongyang’s egregious human
rights violations — many of which mount to crimes against humanity.
“The COI carried out temporary research
into North Korea’s human rights violations, but now we have a stable operation
that can support such activities,” Kim Soo Am, the director of unification
policy studies at Korea Institute for National Unification, said. “It’s
significant in the sense that it can help push issues of accountability and
implementation into the sphere of public discourse and provide continual
backing for the issue.”
Human Rights Watch also welcomed the field
office, calling it a “critical step forward” in the campaign to end the North’s
severe human rights abuses.
“When he wakes up in the morning, North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un should realize that there is now a team of dedicated
professional investigators working full-time to add to the factual record that
will ultimately see him and his top officials brought before an international
court,” Phil Robertson, the group’s Deputy Asia Director said.
North Korea has long protested the
establishment of this field office, labeling it an attempt to overthrow its
leadership. Seoul revealed this week that North Korea said it will pull out of
the international summer Universiade games to be held in the South’s city of
Gwangju, citing the opening of the new human rights office.
