South Korea, the United States and Japan said that human rights conditions in North Korea have not changed even ten years after the United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) pointed out Pyongyang's widespread and systematic human rights abuses in a report.

The three nations' permanent missions to the UN issued a joint statement on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the publication of the COI report on the North's human rights.

In the statement, the three nations said that North Korea remains one of the world's most repressive regimes, imposing severe restrictions on freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, association, religion or belief, and movement.

The statement said these violations and abuses are well-documented, as is the inextricable link between them and the North's unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.

The three nations urged Pyongyang to abide by its obligations under international law and take immediate steps to end all human rights violations and abuses, including the resolution of issues involving abductees, detainees, and unrepatriated prisoners of war.

They also called on all UN member states to join them in holding North Korea to account for its human rights violations and abuses by implementing the recommendations of the UN COI and respecting the principle of non-refoulement.