Director of the Peace and Diplomacy Planning Group meets with the U.S. State Department special envoy

 - For North Korean human rights Discussion of cooperation between Korea and the United States to promote human rights in North Korea

Editor

On the 22nd, Jeon Young-hee, head of the Peace and Diplomacy Planning Group, met with Julie Turner, the special envoy for North Korean human rights, who was visiting Korea, and discussed ways to cooperate between Korea and the United States to promote human rights in North Korea.

(Photo = Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

This comes about a month after the ROK-US consultations on North Korean human rights held in Washington last month, and Special Envoy Turner's visit to Korea shows that cooperation between Korea and the US is becoming closer, with more than five exchanges since his inauguration in October last year.

Director Jeon praised the fact that Special Envoy Turner has paid great attention to the issue of North Korean abduction victims, including a visit to the site where a South Korean citizen was abducted by North Korea during his visit to Korea.

In addition, he emphasized that our government will strengthen efforts to publicize the issue of abductees, detainees, and South Korean military prisoners in domestic and international discussions on North Korean human rights and to protect and support North Korean defectors.

Meanwhile, Director Jeon said that North Korea has been severely restricting the citizens' right to know about the outside world by introducing three major evil laws - the Act on Rejecting Reactionary Ideology and Culture, the Act on Guaranteeing Youth Education, and the Act on Protecting Pyeongyang Cultural Languages ​​- and implementing public executions for violations, etc. In addition, there was concern that civic groups were reporting a recent trend to block North Korean defection attempts by strengthening surveillance of border areas.

Both sides urged North Korea to make serious efforts to improve the actual human rights situation in response to the international community's concerns about the serious human rights situation in North Korea, rather than continuing to reject and criticize.

In addition, it was decided to push for the next ROK-US North Korean human rights consultations to be held in the second half of this year and to continue discussing specific details through diplomatic channels.