Thursday, December 10, 2009

North Korea rejects calls for UNHR expert’s visit

North Korea rejected calls by members of the UN Human Rights Council to grant access to a UN independent expert to assess the human rights situation in the country.

Pyongyang also turned down recommendations for it to abolish the death penalty, end torture, and scrap military training for children, said the UN report summarizing an examination of the human rights situation in North Korea.

Other suggestions that did not find favor with Pyongyang also included calls to end forced labor and to allow for its citizens to move freely across borders and within the country.

They also bristled at accounts of systematic, widespread and grave human rights violations in North Korea. While turning down many recommendations in the final report, Pyongyang did agree to consider allowing international agencies such as the World Food Programme into the country as well as consider signing up to international labor and human rights treaties.

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