“This has been a year of intensified action, particularly in the follow up to the landmark Commission of Inquiry report on the human rights situation the DPRK, of which I was a member,” Marzuki Darusman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the country, told reporters in New York, following a presentation to the Third Committee – the Organization’s main body dealing with social, humanitarian and cultural issues.

“The commission concluded that a number of long-standing and ongoing patterns of systematic and widespread violations in the DPRK met the high threshold required for crimes against humanity in international law,” he continued, noting that since his last appearance before the General Assembly, numerous efforts have been undertaken to follow up on the findings and recommendations by the independent commission and other UN bodies.

Darusman also informed the press that he visited the new headquarters in Seoul of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and had “a very fruitful discussion” with the team. He said they have started implementing their mandate, to strengthen monitoring capacity and documentation recording of the human rights situation in the DPRK.

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council also convened an historic first of its kind panel discussion on the human rights situation in the DPRK last September, including on the issue of international abductions and enforced disappearances and related matters.

“I express deep regret that the human rights situation in the DPRK remains the same, despite the grave concerns constantly reiterated by the international community in different fora,” the expert stressed.

“I continue to receive numbers of reports regarding the precarious challenges of daily life in the DPRK, severe discrimination based on the songbun [people classification] system, summary executions in total disregard of due process and other international human rights standards […].”

He added that he also received reports about DPRK nationals who are sent abroad to work in many regions of the world, labouring under conditions that amount to a subjection to forced labour both by their own and the hosting governments.

“I further call on and urge the Government of the DPRK to immediately halt all the blatant human rights violations identified in my report to the General Assembly as well as in the report by the commission,” he insisted.

To that end, he said he firmly believes that the accountability track must be pursued urgently, in parallel with sustained efforts to seek engagement with the DPRK to ease the suffering of people.