The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child is deliberating on a report submitted by North Korea in 2007 on its implementation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In the public deliberation held in Geneva Friday, 18 independent committee members inquired into the report's content, directing questions to North Korean delegates, headed by the North's envoy to Geneva.

The envoy said in a keynote speech that his country continued projects to guarantee children rights and promote welfare under national interest despite difficult conditions especially between 2001 and 2007.

Six members of South Korean civic groups including an Asia Center for Human Rights director held talks with the deliberators. They revealed rights violations and labor exploitation of North Korean children saying that some serve in the military starting from age 16.