A United Nations human rights investigator has called on North Korea to allow greater freedom to its citizens and to review its legal administration system.

In a statement to a U.N. General Assembly on Friday, Vitit Muntarbhron , a law professor in Bangkok who monitors North Korea at the request of the Geneva-based U.N. commission on Human Rights, called on Pyongyang to abolish capital punishment and forced labor as well as to allow its citizens the rights to participate in politics and religion.

In a news conference on Friday, Muntarbhorn urged North Korea to observe the norms it has agreed to in ratifying four international conventions on human rights.

Meanwhile, North Korean envoy Kim Chang-guk asserted that Pyongyang has not only ensured the human rights for all citizens by law but also pursued such practical policies that all people enjoy and exercise.