Blocked by the government from visiting North Korea, UN special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea Tomas Quintana visited South Korea this week as part of an investigation that will be provided to the UN Human Rights Council in March. Human rights were noticeably absent from talks between Kim and the leaders of South Korea and the United States last year, over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. North Korea’s foreign ministry warned in a statement after the December sanctions were announced, that the measures could lead to a return to “exchanges of fire” and North Korea’s disarming could be blocked forever. He said witnesses who recently left North Korea reported facing widespread discrimination, labor exploitation and corruption in daily life. There is also a “continuing pattern of ill-treatment and torture” of defectors who escaped to China only to be returned to North Korea by Chinese authorities, Quintana said.

Source: Egypt Independent January 11, 2019 07:30 UTC