The South Korean government raised the issue of North Korean human rights at a meeting on Friday of the United Nation General Assembly’s Third Committee.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said South Korea’s deputy ambassador to the UN Shin Dong-ik urged China to ban the forced repatriation of North Korean refugees.

Shin also welcomed a plan by a special UN rapporteur to look further into political prisoner camps in North Korea. Shin also urged North Korea to release prisoners who were put behind bars under the North's guilt-by-association law.

In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council has urged Japan to resolve the issue of forced sexual slavery, which occurred during its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

The council also gave Tokyo a report with 174 recommended actions for Japan, including resolution of the sexual slavery issue.