New U.N. human rights envoy on N. Korea to visit S. Korea next week

SEOUL, Nov. 18 (Yonhap) -- The new U.N. human rights envoy on North Korea will visit South Korea next week, the foreign ministry said Thursday, in what would be his first trip since taking the job earlier this year.

Marzuki Darusman succeeded Vitit Muntarbhorn as the U.N. special rapporteur on the North's human rights in June. The new envoy, 65, had served as Indonesia's attorney-general, chairman of Indonesia's national human rights commission and as a legislator.

His trip to South Korea includes meetings with Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, Unification Minister Hyun In-taek and officials from non-governmental organizations, as well as a visit to Hanawon, a resettlement center for North Korean defectors.

North Korea has long been labeled one of the worst human rights violators in the world. The totalitarian regime of leader Kim Jong-il does not tolerate dissent and holds hundreds of thousands of people in political prison camps across the nation.

Pyongyang has bristled at any talk of its human rights conditions, calling it a U.S.-led attempt to overthrow the communist regime. The former envoy, Muntarbhorn, never visited the North as Pyongyang refused to receive him.


(2010-11-18/english.yonhapnews.co.kr)