NEW YORK (March 25, 2026) — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF), in a joint letter with 23 organizations and six individual signatories, calls on South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung to ensure that his government co-sponsors the annual draft resolution on the human rights situation in North Korea at the 61st United Nations Human Rights Council.
South Korea has historically played a vital role in advancing accountability for atrocities in North Korea. The joint signatories warn that any retreat from this leadership undermines both regional stability and universal human rights. Recent policy decisions, including the suspension of key human rights reporting and the dismantling of institutions supporting North Korean escapees, signal a troubling shift away from prioritizing victims of repression.
Sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula cannot be achieved by sidelining human rights. Dialogue and engagement must go hand in hand with accountability. Not co-sponsoring the resolution would send the wrong message about South Korea’s commitment to improving the human rights situation in North Korea.
“For South Korea, the suffering in the North is not someone else’s story — it is the suffering of its brethren,” said Seongmin Lee, Director of the Korea Desk at HRF. “If anything, South Korea has a moral responsibility to lead in confronting these abuses, not step back from them.”
The joint letter stresses that security and stability on the Korean Peninsula cannot coexist with the continued denial of human dignity in North Korea. It urges President Lee to take a principled stance and reaffirm South Korea’s commitment to human rights by co-sponsoring the resolution.
The full text of the joint letter is provided below.
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March 25, 2026
Re: North Korean human rights resolution at the 61st United Nations Human Rights Council
Dear President Lee Jae-myung,
We urge your government on behalf of 24 organizations and 6 individuals to co-sponsor the annual draft resolution on the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) at the 61st United Nations Human Rights Council .
As you know, the gravity of the human rights situation in North Korea is well recognized globally. In 2014, the UN Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the DPRK (COI) found that the DPRK government has committed crimes against humanity pursuant to state policies, including “extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.” Following these findings, the UN Human Rights Council and General Assembly have regularly adopted resolutions strongly condemning North Korea’s human rights violations and calling for strengthening accountability efforts and mechanisms. The Republic of Korea ( South Korea ) has historically played an integral role in these efforts, co-sponsoring Human Rights Council resolutions on the situation in North Korea every year from 2008 to 2018.
Between 2019 and 2022, South Korea declined to co-sponsor North Korean human rights resolutions, claiming to promote human rights in North Korea instead through “peace and prosperity in the Korean peninsula.” This approach sidelined human rights and pursued engagement at the expense of accountability. Very troublingly, in November 2019, South Korea forcibly repatriated two North Korean fishermen to almost certain torture, enslavement, and enforced disappearances or execution, violating its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, both of which prohibit refoulement.
In late 2022, South Korea returned to co-sponsoring North Korean human rights resolutions at the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly. Your administration continued this trajectory by co -sponsoring the North Korean human rights resolution at the 80th UN General Assembly in December 2025. We welcomed that decision.
We encourage you to continue co-sponsoring the resolution at the 61st Human Rights Council, particularly in light of recent actions from your administration that appear to backtrack on human rights in North Korea. For instance, in 2025, the Ministry of Unification suspended publication of its annual North Korea Human Rights Report, dismantled a division dedicated to supporting North Korean escapees’ employment and entrepreneurship, and disbanded its North Korean human rights and humanitarian office and abductees response team. These actions collectively signal a troubling shift away from support for the victims of the North Korean government repression.
Not co-sponsoring the resolution would send the wrong message about South Korea’s commitment to improving the human rights situation in North Korea and diminish South Korea’s standing as a country that upholds the shared common values of freedom, democratic governance, and the rule of law.
Sustainable peace on the Korean peninsula cannot be achieved by excluding human rights. Doing so may make it appear that tensions have eased, but the structure of repression that fuels instability remains. Dialogue and engagement need to go hand in hand with the protection of human rights and accountability, which cannot be built on silence in the face of North Korea’s atrocity crimes.
We ask you to take a principled stance on North Korea’s grave human rights violations and co-sponsor the first annual North Korean human rights resolution in the UN Human Rights Council of your presidency.
Sincerely,
Signatories (as of March 25, 2026):
Organizations
Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates — AHRLA
Cadal
CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Global Rights Compliance
HanVoice
Human Asia
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)
Human Rights Foundation
Human Rights in Asia
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Without Frontiers International
Human Rights Without Frontiers Netherlands
International Coalition to Stop Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea
Investigation Commission on Missing Japanese Probably Related to North Korea
Korea Of All (KOA)
Liberty in North Korea
No Fence
Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights
North Korea Human Rights Network
People for Successful C0rean REunification —PSCORE
The Society To Help Returnees From Japan To North Korea
The Song Foundation for North Korea Human Rights
Unification Academy
Individuals
David Alton, Co-Chair of the All Party Group on North Korea – Westminster Parliament
Sonja Bizerko, Former member of the Commission of Inquiry on North Korean human rights
Roberta Coen, Senior Advisor, Free Korean Association
Geoffrey Nice, Lead Prosecutor for UN of Slobodan Milosevic former President on Serbia
Jihyun Park, Senior Fellow for Human Security, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Suzanne Scholte, Seoul Peace Prize Laureate
