The unification ministry said Monday that an advisory committee on enhancing the human rights situation in North Korea will begin its second term this week, as part of efforts to tackle the dire rights conditions in the North.

The 12-member committee, tasked with conducting research on the issue and advising the unification minister, South Korea’s point man on North Korea, will convene its first meeting Tuesday, with new members beginning their one-year terms, the ministry said.

Before the committee was launched last year, a North Korean Human Rights Foundation should have been established to implement the North Korean Human Rights Act, which came into force in 2016. But the foundation couldn’t be launched as the main opposition party failed to recommend board members for the envisioned foundation.

The impasse prompted the ministry to launch the committee in March last year to try to address the dire human rights situation in North Korea. Its previous term ended earlier this month.

The ministry said it a
ppointed two North Korean defectors, both in their 30s, as new members of the committee.

North Korea has long been accused of grave human rights abuses, ranging from holding political prisoners in concentration camps to committing torture and carrying out public executions.

Source: Yonhap News Agency