The UN General Assembly has held a rare meeting to discuss systematic human rights violations in North Korea. 

The General Assembly convened the high-level meeting on Tuesday at the UN headquarters in New York to address the human rights situation in the North. 

The United Nations Security Council and the United Nations Human Rights Council have held meetings on human rights in North Korea, but this is the first time the UN General Assembly has held a high-level meeting on the issue.

At the meeting, Greg Scarlatoiu, president and CEO of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said the issue poses a serious threat not only to the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia, but also to international security, including security in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Elizabeth Salmón, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the North, voiced concerns that human rights conditions in the North have significantly worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic, saying North Koreans have been living in absolute isolation for over five years. 

Two North Korean escapees also spoke at the meeting and provided personal accounts of human rights abuses in the North.