The head of the U.S. Defense Forum Foundation has called human rights the key to the North Korea problem.

Suzanne Scholte on Thursday said in a global forum in Seoul that the North's leader Kim Jong-il maintains his regime through violating human rights using political camps, intelligence and food control.

She said the number of North Koreans murdered by the regime is 22 times that by the South Asia tsunami last year, adding Pyongyang's "silent killing" continues.

Scholte also blasted China for repatriating North Korean defectors and arresting those helping the escapees, saying defectors in China are at constant risk of death, human trafficking and the sex trade.

She said Pyongyang considers the raising of the human rights matter by other nations as a weapon, and that it has blocked aid from international NGOs while diverting food aid to its military.

Citing the U.S. law enacted last year on the North's human rights, she said American politicians agree that the North Korean public must be freed and the recent U.N. adoption of a European Union resolution on the matter reflects world interest.