UNSC urged to discuss rights violations in NKorea

All Security Council members have been urged to support an open briefing to discuss the "dire human rights situation" in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and "its implications for peace and security."

The call by Estonia, France, Ireland, Japan, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States came in a joint statement delivered by US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Wednesday.

Thomas-Greenfield said, "the people of the DPRK are systematically denied their fundamental freedoms by one of the most repressive and totalitarian regimes in the world."

She added that North Korea's human rights violations and abuses have been well documented.

"We hope that tomorrow, when the General Assembly, adopts its annual resolution on the human rights situation in DPRK, that UN membership will once again come together and universally condemn the DPRK's violations," Thomas-Greenfield told reporters in New York.