Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of progress on human rights in North Korea since the publication of the UN Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea -­ A/HRC/25/63.

The UK is deeply concerned about the appalling human rights situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as documented by the 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry Report on Human Rights in the country. The UK has responded to the report's recommendations by continuing to press for an annual debate in the UN Security Council, and working to secure a robust resolution on the DPRK at the UN Human Rights Council. On 17 August 2023, at the first UNSC open meeting on the human rights situation in the DPRK since 2017, the UK highlighted inextricable links between the DPRK's human rights violations and its illegal weapons programme, and called on the DPRK to engage with the UN Special Rapporteur. This year, the UK will again work closely with partners to secure a strong resolution which stresses the importance of following-up recommendations from the COI Report and provides the basis for further work on a credible framework for accountability for human rights violations in the DPRK.