Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the human rights situation in North Korea.

The UK remains extremely concerned by the appalling human rights situation in North Korea, as we made clear alongside G7 leaders on 13 June, and G7 Foreign Ministers on 5 May. As set out in the FCDO 2020 Annual Human Rights and Democracy Report published on 8 July, we continue to work with partners to hold the North Korean government to account and urge the DPRK to cooperate fully with relevant UN human rights mandate holders and allow them immediate and unhindered access to the country. The UK continues to press annual debate on the DPRK's human rights issues in the UN Security Council. We keep our Global Human Rights (GHR) sanctions regime under review following the designation in July 2020 of the DPRK's Ministry of State Security (Bureau 7) and the Ministry of People's Security (Correctional Bureau).