Anchor: The UN Security Council(UNSC) held a meeting to discuss human rights abuses in North Korea. Presided over by South Korea’s Ambassador to the UN Hwang Joon-kook, this month’s rotating UNSC president, participants at the meeting sought ways to improve the human rights situation in the North while China and Russia voiced displeasure over what they called the politicization of human rights issues.
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: Diplomats and rights activists discussed worsening human rights conditions in North Korea at a UN Security Council meeting in New York. 

Wednesday's session was presided over by South Korea’s Ambassador to the UN Hwang Joon-kook, who accused Pyongyang of keeping the people in the dark with their draconian control. 

[Sound bite: S. Korean Ambassador to the UN Hwang Joon-kook]
“The DPRK’s oppressive political and social system has allowed it to remain in power and vigorously develop nuclear and missile capabilities. The DPRK’s exploitation of its citizens, domestically and overseas, including through forced labor, generates revenues that finance its weapons programs... "

As the South Korean diplomat called on UN member states to work together on the matter, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged Pyongyang to give up its "isolationist mindset.”

[Sound bite: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk]
“I urge the government of the DPRK to flip the orthodoxies and overcome its isolationist mindset, which only breeds deeper and deeper distrust, setting off a never-ending spiral of groupthink at the expense of a more prosperous and secure future for its people. Human rights, in all their dimensions, offer a solution and a way forward.” 

The dire situation in the North is currently coupled with a lack of access to food. According to Elizabeth Salmon, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in North Korea, the country is possibly facing the worst humanitarian crisis since the disastrous famine in the late 1990s.

The meeting was convened by South Korea, Japan, the U.S. and the U.K. on Wednesday despite Russia and China's opposition.

The two staunch allies of North Korea had called for a procedural vote to not hold the meeting but the attempt was defeated by 12 of 15 member states agreeing to the session.   

The Russian representative said the UNSC is squandering resources on a discussion of what he called groundless and blatantly politicized matters.

Briefing ambassadors at the meeting, North Korean defector-turned civil society representative Kim Gum-hyok urged the council “to stand on the side of the North Korean people, not the dictatorship."
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.