UN rapporteur discusses N.K. human rights issues with S. Korean officials

Seoul, Feb 16 (IANS) The UN special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea met with South Korean officials on Wednesday to discuss the reclusive state's humanitarian situation, officials in Seoul said.Tomas Ojea Quintana arrived in Seoul on Tuesday for a nine-day visit, during which he plans to meet South Korean government officials, politicians, as well as civic groups and North Korean defectors to prepare an annual report to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council next month.He paid a courtesy call to Vice Unification Minister Choi Young-jun and discussed pending humanitarian issues, including the reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, Yonhap news agency reported citing the Ministry of Unification."The vice unification minister said efforts to improve inter-Korean relations and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula should make progress based on cooperation with the international community to actually promote North Koreans' human rights," the ministry said in a press release.Quintana also had a meeting with Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon to exchange opinions on diplomatic efforts to promote human rights in North Korea, the foreign ministry said.On Thursday, the UN expert is scheduled to meet the brother of a South Korean fisheries official who was killed by North Korean troops near the inter-Korean sea border in 2020 and the son of the North's 1969 plane hijacking victim.

It is Quintana's seventh trip to South Korea since taking office in August 2016 and the last before his term ends in August.The rapporteur will hold a press briefing on his findings and recommendations on the last day of his stay here.
--IANS int/sks

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