Pyongyang invites EU rights official Stavros Lambrinidis for visit in March
North Korea said it had invited the European Union's top human-rights official to visit the country, but it threatened to drop recent offers of visits by UN rights officials unless a resolution on the country removes any reference to the International Criminal Court by today.
North Korea said it had invited the European Union's top human-rights official to visit the country, but it threatened to drop recent offers of visits by UN rights officials unless a resolution on the country removes any reference to the International Criminal Court by today.
North Korean diplomat Kim Un-chol said on Thursday that the visit by the EU official, Stavros Lambrinidis, was expected next March.
"We have already sent the invitation letter," Kim said.
An EU official in Brussels last month confirmed that Lambrinidis had met a North Korean representative.
North Korea has been on the defensive since a UN commission early this year detailed what it said were vast human-rights abuses in the impoverished but nuclear-armed country, and warned that its leader, Kim Jong-un, could be held accountable.
The new EU-Japan resolution at the UN echoes the report's recommendations, saying the UN Security Council should refer North Korea's human-rights situation to the International Criminal Court.
Although ally China, a permanent council member, has signalled it would veto such a move, Pyongyang has been unnerved that international attention on its dismal rights record has not seemed to fade.
For North Korea to offer any dialogue on human rights is seen as significant. But one UN diplomat this week, asked what assurance countries had that Pyongyang would follow up on its word, said simply: "None."
Param-Preet Singh, a senior counsel for Human Rights Watch, said the UN special rapporteur made it clear in his report to the General Assembly this week that nothing had changed in North Korea's human-rights situation since the commission of inquiry's findings.
"The bottom line is this: Empty promises should not distract the international community from its responsibility to bring those responsible for the worst crimes in North Korea to justice," Singh said. "Accountability is simply not negotiable."
North Korea broke off a previous human-rights dialogue with the EU in 2003.
