Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what human rights conditions are attached to the UK's cultural engagement projects inside the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The UK’s policy of critical engagement enables us to directly express to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the UK and international community’s concerns regarding the DPRK’s nuclear weapons programme and human rights situation. We use educational and cultural projects to encourage the DPRK citizens/population to better understand the outside world and the opportunities that reform, including on human rights, could bring. The UN Commission of Inquiry report on the human rights situation in the DPRK recommended that States and civil society organisations foster opportunities for people-to-people dialogue and contact in areas including culture. While a direct impact on human rights is not a condition for all Foreign and Commonwealth Office engagement projects, we consider carefully the impact of all project activities on the human rights situation in the DPRK when deciding whether or not to undertake a project.