South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Tuesday that North Korea's human rights abuses should be fully laid bare around the world, as the government prepares to publish a report on Pyongyang's human rights situation for the first time.
"The reality of the appalling human rights violations against the North Korean people must be fully revealed to the international community," he said during a Cabinet meeting.
Under the North Korean Human Rights Act passed in 2016, the Unification Minister is required to submit an annual report to the National Assembly on the reclusive nation's human rights situation, reports Yonhap News Agency.
The law also calls for the establishment of a North Korean human rights foundation, but its launch has been delayed for years as the main opposition Democratic Party has refused to recommend its share of members for the foundation's board.
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"Seven years have passed since the North Korean Human Rights Act was enacted, but the North Korean human rights foundation has still not been launched, and the North Korean human rights report is only now being published," Yoon said.
"The North Korean Human Rights Act must be implemented in practice even now."
The President said he hopes to see the North's human rights conditions widely publicized during the Summit for Democracy starting on Wednesday and during the ongoing regular session of the UN Human Rights Council.
He also called on each government ministry, including the unification and education ministries, to use the publication of the North Korean human rights report to inform people at home and abroad of the North's human rights situation.
