The Voice of America (VOA) reported Friday that U.N. human rights envoy on North Korea Marzuki Darusman has asked countries neighboring North Korea to support and protect defectors of the communist nation.

The human rights envoy said in an annual report to the U.N. General Assembly that defecting North Korean women who marry men of other nations and their children are experiencing considerable difficulties. He said the relevant nations should provide education and social support.

Darusman cited Thailand as an exemplary case. He said the number of North Korean defectors who choose to live in Thailand has, through the efforts of the Thai government, surged six-fold from 40 in 2004 to more than 24-hundred in 2010. As of April this year, 870 defectors had already traveled to the Southeast Asian nation.

The U.N. envoy added an independent international agency is necessary to keep watch over North Korea’s political prison camps.

Moreover, Darusman's call to nations that neighbor the North appears to have targeted China.