Vice Foreign Minister Cho Jung-pyo says South Korea will step up efforts to improve the living conditions of the North Korean people in line with its policy of reconciliation and cooperation with the North.

Speaking before the U.N. Human Rights Council Wednesday, he also said Seoul is concerned about Pyongyang’s human rights conditions.

In response, an official from the North’s diplomatic mission in Geneva said Cho’s remarks run counter to the harmonious atmosphere being created between the two Koreas.

The official said international concerns over the North’s human rights issue are only a pretext made up by countries hostile to Pyongyang to pick on the communist state.