United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, seen here at a press conference in Seoul on Wednesday, called for a heightened focus on human rights issues in North Korea. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI
SEOUL, May 13 (UPI) — United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Wednesday called for an “all hands on deck” response to North Korea’s human rights crisis, saying efforts to address peace and security on the Korean Peninsula “need to be anchored in human rights.”
“The situation in the DPRK is a human rights crisis and it is high time the international community treats it as such,” Turk said at a press conference in Seoul, using the official acronym for North Korea.
“My office has continued to document patterns of ongoing gross human rights violations, some of which may amount to crimes against humanity,” he said.
Turk is on a three-day trip to South Korea, where he is meeting with civil society groups, North Korean escapees and senior government officials. It is the first visit by a U.N. human rights chief since 2015.
A 2014 U.N. Commission of Inquiry report found North Korea’s abuses to be “without parallel in the contemporary world” and recommended referring the country’s leadership to the International Criminal Court.
A follow-up assessment released last year by the U.N. human rights office said conditions in North Korea “have not improved over the past decade and, in many instances, have degraded,” citing worsening food shortages, forced labor and severe restrictions on movement and expression.
“It is clear that there needs to be accountability in all its forms, including non-judicial forms, for the grave violations that have plagued the DPRK for decades,” Turk said.
“It is equally clear that we need all hands on deck to craft fresh solutions for the way forward,” he added. “Peace and security on the Korean peninsula need to be anchored in human rights.”
Turk’s trip comes as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung pursues improved ties with Pyongyang through confidence-building measures such as restricting activist groups from sending anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the border.
Lee’s administration has also taken a cautious approach to North Korean rights concerns, including dissolving a Unification Ministry office focused on the issue and suspending publication of an annual rights report. Advocacy groups have criticized the moves as a “troubling shift away from support for the victims of North Korean government repression.”
Turk pushed back against the notion that dialogue with Pyongyang requires softening criticism of its rights record.
“There is no paradox in engaging while addressing human rights issues,” he said. “Engagement cannot come at the expense of human rights. That was obviously a very important part of my dialogue with the authorities here.”
In March, South Korea joined 49 other countries in co-sponsoring a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution condemning North Korea’s abuses, despite speculation Seoul might withhold support.
Turk also addressed the case of two North Korean prisoners of war captured by Ukrainian forces in January 2025 after being deployed to support Russia’s war effort.
The soldiers have expressed a desire to go to South Korea rather than return to the North, where rights groups say they could face severe punishment.
Turk said international human rights law was “very clear” on the issue.
“The obligation not to send them back to areas where they could end up being harmed” applies in their case, he said.
Turk said his office continues to seek opportunities for dialogue with North Korean officials and called next week’s visit by a North Korean women’s soccer team to South Korea “encouraging.”
“Urgent steps are needed to find ways to exchange letters, resume family contacts and reunions, and release information clarifying the whereabouts and fate of disappeared and abducted people,” he said.
On Thursday, Turk is scheduled to travel to Gwangju to deliver a keynote address at the World Human Rights Cities Forum.
