Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 5 December (HL3335), whether they accept the findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry that (1) North Korea is a state "without parallel", (2) more than 100,000 people are in gulags, and (3) repatriation of refugees invariably results in them being sent to gulags.

The British Government remains extremely concerned by the appalling human rights situation in the DPRK as outlined in the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report. We have repeatedly made clear our serious concerns about the regime's treatment of its people, both directly to the DPRK government and through multilateral fora.

We have consistently called on the DPRK to allow independent inspections of the humanitarian situation. On 11 December, UK Permanent Representative to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, echoed this call during a speech to the UN Security Council meeting on human rights in the DPRK. The speech also referenced the regime's refusal to act on the COI's findings.

We agree unequivocally with the recommendation of Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK, that the DPRK should refrain from using any form of punishment or retaliation against people who are forcibly repatriated.