U.N. rights envoy on N. Korea due in Seoul: sources

SEOUL, Jan. 3 (Yonhap) -- The United Nations' envoy on North Korean human rights
plans to visit South Korea to meet with defectors from the North and relevant
officials as part of a fact-finding mission to determine the latest conditions in
the communist state, officials said Sunday.
Vitit Muntarbhorn, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, is
scheduled to arrive in South Korea on Jan. 10 for a seven-day visit, diplomatic
sources, who requested anonymity, said.
Muntarbhorn plans to visit Hanawon, a resettlement center in Seoul for North
Korean defectors, where he will conduct interviews to obtain first-hand
impressions on human rights conditions inside the North, according to officials.
He is also scheduled to meet with officials from the unification and foreign
ministries in charge of Seoul's affairs with Pyongyang. The findings will be
reflected in the U.N.'s upcoming report on the latest human rights conditions in
North Korea.
Over 14,000 North Koreans have arrived in South Korea to escape famine and
political oppression in their homeland since the 1950-53 Korean War. Seoul
believes a total of 494 South Korean citizens, mostly fishermen, have been
kidnapped and are being held by the North.
Muntarbhorn's visit comes on the heels of North Korea's detention of Robert Park,
a 28-year-old American rights activist, who entered the country illegally to shed
light on the reportedly grave human rights violations being committed in the
reclusive state. Park is currently being detained by the North Korean government.

The rapporteur has regularly visited South Korea once or twice a year to collect
information on North Korean human rights violations. The U.N. has reportedly
sought permission from Pyongyang to allow the rapporteur to visit North Korea,
though he has been consistently denied entry by the central government.
No accurate data on the North's human rights situation is available as the
communist nation strictly controls traffic across its border. But the U.N. and
global human rights groups say that citizens there have no freedom of speech and
dissidents suffer torture and even execution without trial.
odissy@yna.co.kr
(END)