The U.S. State Department has stressed efforts to alleviate the suffering of North Korean people in regards to the regime's human rights concerns, after reports emerged of a possible repatriation of North Korean escapees detained in China.

In a telephone briefing Friday, the department's deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter said the U.S. is certainly committed to placing human rights at the center of foreign policy, and this of course includes North Korea. 

Earlier Human Rights Watch said at least one-thousand-170 North Koreans are currently detained in China and facing forced repatriation to the North as Pyongyang recently reopened its borders.

Porter said the U.S. will continue to prioritize human rights in its overall approach on North Korea. She said even when the U.S. disagrees with a regime like the North, it must work to the best of its ability to alleviate the suffering of its people, and the U.S. strives to act in a manner that does not harm the North Korean people.

She said Washington will continue to support international efforts aimed at the provision of critical humanitarian aid in the hope that North Korea will accept it.