Foreign minister Park Jin assessed that South Korea and the U.S. have an established coordination framework for the promotion of human rights in North Korea after meeting with the State Department’s special envoy on the matter.

During the meeting with Julie Turner on Monday, Park said North Korean people want to live in a society where no one suffers from hunger, none of their neighbors die, and no one is subject to surveillance.

The minister called for the allies to voice related concerns through solidarity with the international community so that the North’s people are guaranteed basic freedoms.

Turner, for her part, said she feels a heavy responsibility considering the gravity of the rights situation, before pledging to actively cooperate with Seoul to achieve actual improvement.

Regarding a recent media report that hundreds of North Korean defectors in China were repatriated to the communist regime, Park stressed that Seoul maintains the stance that no defector should be forcibly returned.

He added that Seoul will exert diplomatic efforts for their safe and prompt transfer to the South should that be their desire.

Turner, who took office last Friday, ended a six-year post vacancy following the departure of her predecessor, Robert King, in January 2017.