Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the comment made on 22 January 2016 by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

We work closely with international partners to exert pressure on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) regarding its human rights track record both through multilateral fora, including the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council, as well as through our critical engagement with the regime both in Pyongyang and London.

We are aware of the appalling human rights situation in the DPRK as described by the UN Special Rapporteur as well as set out in the UN Commission of Inquiry report. Our policy priorities continue to be the improvement of the human rights situation for the North Korean people and an end to the DPRK’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme.