Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) - Human Rights Priority Country
Updated 8 February 2017
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Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)
The human rights situation in the DPRK showed no sign of improvement in 2015.
The DPRK government continued to reject the findings and recommendations of the UN Commission of Inquiry report, and to protest against resolutions passed by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and UN Security Council (UNSC). It persisted in rejecting serious engagement with the international community and did not undertake any notable measures to improve the domestic human rights situation. Whilst the DPRK accepted 114 recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, they declined discussions on their implementation plans, despite the encouragement of the international community.
In 2015, human rights remained one of our policy priorities for the DPRK. We helped ensure the issue remained high on the international community’s agenda, and raised concerns directly with the DPRK authorities. We also supported small-scale projects aimed at improving the lives of vulnerable groups in the DPRK.
We worked to focus attention on the DPRK’s human rights record through international fora such as the UN General Assembly, the UNSC and the HRC, where lobbying by the UK government helped to secure strong resolutions. We also supported the 14th session of the EU-DPRK political dialogue held in Pyongyang in June 2015, where the EU side raised human rights, including the use of prison camps, torture, and the lack of freedom of expression and political freedoms.
We took every available opportunity in 2015 to raise our serious concerns about DPRK human rights directly with the DPRK government in London and Pyongyang. Senior FCO officials met diplomats from the DPRK Embassy and visiting senior DPRK officials. These meetings were used to reiterate our concerns over the DPRK’s failure to uphold its international obligations. The British Embassy in Pyongyang repeatedly raised our concerns on human rights directly with the DPRK government.
In 2015, the FCO funded a number of projects aimed at increasing awareness of international human rights standards and improving the provision of equipment available to disabled persons in the DPRK. We have also offered technical human rights training for DPRK officials but, at the time of writing, the DPRK authorities had yet to respond.
Human rights remain a priority for our DPRK policy in 2016. We will continue to work with like-minded partners to urge the DPRK government to accept the existence and extent of their human rights violations, and to demonstrate a willingness to take steps to address these issues – for example, by agreeing to a visit by the UN Special Rapporteur and other senior UN officials.
We will maintain pressure on the DPRK through international fora (such as the UN and EU), and look for ways in which we can support the work of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights through its office in the Republic of Korea. Alongside this, we will press the DPRK to deliver on the UPR recommendations they have accepted, and use bilateral and international engagement to keep pressure on the DPRK.