The South Korean Embassy in Belgium will send an observer to the third International Conference on North Korean Human Rights in Brussels.

A Foreign Ministry official in Seoul said Monday that the observer will also attend the European Parliament's hearing on the North's human rights situation.

The ministry said that Seoul officials have not been invited to the event and that the government will not send an official delegate.

Organized by the American human rights group Freedom House, the conference will open Wednesday in Brussels for a two-day run.

In December last year, a ministry official also observed the second conference held in Seoul.