New UN field office is set to open in Seoul

South Korea is planning to open a United Nations field office in Seoul within the next several months to look into information on the North Korean human rights situation.

The office, which could open as early as April, is set to be located in the Seoul Global Center in Jongno District, central Seoul, according to diplomatic sources on Wednesday. The office is in the process of recruiting employees, and will eventually expand on the work of the UN commission of inquiry into the human rights situation in Pyongyang.

Last May, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights selected South Korea as the location to establish a new field office to investigate North Korean human rights abuses, beating out other potential host countries like Japan and Thailand.

In its latest defense of its human rights record, North Korea through its propaganda arm, Uriminzokkiri, lambasted a UN Human Rights Council resolution drafted by the European Union and Japan on Pyongyang’s atrocious rights violations as a “political provocation.”

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]