A U.K.-based nongovernmental organization (NGO) urged North Korea to end its recruitment of child soldiers.
 
Radio Free Asia said that the NGO “Child Soldiers International” stressed the North should raise its minimum enlistment age from the current 16 or 17 to 18, as recommended by the UN. The request came as Thursday marks the UN-designated International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers.
 
The organization also called on North Korea and 29 other countries, which have not yet joined an international anti-child soldier treaty, to immediately sign the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and introduce related laws.
 
The organization said that some countries continue to recruit children under the age of 18 for military purposes. Child Soldiers International estimates that at least one million underage soldiers have participated in armed conflict over the past decade.