Seoul mulling U.N. office on N. Korean human rights

SEOUL, April 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will positively consider hosting a United Nations office on North Korea's human rights violations if it receives a formal request, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.

Following a U.N. commission of inquiry's report accusing the North of dire human rights violations, the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution in late March calling on the international community to take steps to bring those responsible to justice.

The resolution also called for the establishment of a field office in charge of further investigation and follow-up measures to address North Korea's human rights violations.

"Currently, discussions are under way over the location of the field office," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young said in a briefing. "The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the U.N. is looking for a location agreeable to member countries of the human rights council.

"Seoul's stance is that it will positively review a request if it is made by the U.N. and the human rights council," the spokesman said. "The South Korean government has coherently supported the U.N.'s resolutions on North Korea under the principle that human rights should be respected as a universal value for mankind."

   Cho's comments came in response to a local news report that Seoul has rejected a U.N. request to set up a field office here due to concerns that it could hamper humanitarian projects between the two Koreas, including the occasional reunions of separated South and North Korean families.

"The report is not true at all," he said.

North Korea has strongly denounced the recent U.N. report that accused the regime of "systemic, widespread and gross" violations of North Koreans' human rights, threatening to conduct a "new form of nuclear test."

   pbr@yna.co.kr

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