▲ Chun Young-hee (3rd from L), director general for the Korean Peninsula peace regime at South Korea's foreign ministry, holds a consultative meeting on the North Korean human rights issue with Julie Turner (2nd from R), U.S. special envoy on North Korean human rights, in Brussels, Belgium, on Nov. 15, 2023, in this photo provided by the ministry the following day. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

S Korea-US-NK rights

S. Korea, U.S. revive consultative meeting on N.K. human rights after 6 years

SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States resumed a long-suspended bilateral forum on North Korea's human rights and held a meeting in Brussels this week for the first time in six years, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

Chun Young-hee, director general for the Korean Peninsula peace regime at the ministry, and Ambassador Julie Turner met in Brussels on Wednesday (local time), and discussed ways for bilateral and multilateral cooperation to improve North Korea's human rights situation, it said.

The two sides criticized the dire rights situation in the North and voiced concerns over the regime's use of the pandemic to tighten control over its people, as well as blocking information from entering the country, according to the ministry.

South Korea and the U.S. launched the bilateral North Korean Human Rights Consultation in 2016, and held three meetings that year and the following year.

The talks, however, were suspended under the previous liberal administration of President Moon Jae-in. Since taking office in May last year, the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration has taken a proactive stance in addressing the North's rights issues.

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