South Korea’s human rights envoy for North Korea Lee Shin-hwa called for a comprehensive approach addressing North Korea’s human rights and nuclear issues together.

Ambassador Lee made the remarks in a conference on the North’s human rights in Hawaii on Monday, local time, stressing the need to consider the two issues as threats to peace and crimes against humanity.

Lee said that despite the persistence of the nuclear issue for over 20 years since the early 1990s, it has been dealt with separately from the human rights issue.

The envoy said that North Korea's nuclear program and human rights are closely related through financing and labor exploitation, noting that Pyongyang conducted 71 missile launches last year at a value equivalent to one million tons of food despite an annual shortfall of 800-thousand tons.

Lee also claimed that more than 100-thousand North Korean workers abroad are living in conditions similar to modern-day slavery, working up to 18 hours a day and giving 80 to 90 percent of their income to the regime.

The ambassador said that it was a mistake to ignore the human rights issue in past negotiations with Pyongyang, adding that it only emboldens the North Korean regime while also devastating the country.