North Korea human rights abuses to be monitored from Seoul

SEOUL, June 19 (UPI) -- North Korea human rights abuses are to be monitored at a new U.N. office in Seoul, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from Pyongyang.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is scheduled to open the new field office on Tuesday, the Korea Herald reported.

The opening of the office in South Korea complies with a U.N. Commission of Inquiry recommendation published in February 2014. In their report, the commission urged concerned parties to take action against North Korean human rights violations, according to Voice of America.

In March, Pyongyang blasted the U.N. move, and North Korea's Committee for Peaceful Unification ironically vowed "merciless punishment" against Seoul for accommodating the U.N. office.

North Korea voiced its opposition to the office again this week, when a representative from Pyongyang to a U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva condemned the new office.

"We regard it as a political plot aimed at overthrowing the social system of the DPRK by fabricating and propagandizing the human rights issues of the DPRK," said Kim Yong Ho, a North Korean envoy based in Geneva.

North Korea claims its human rights record is pristine and refuses to accept international meddling in its domestic affairs.

The U.N. COI report included an extensive list of North Korean human rights abuses that include torture, execution, arbitrary incarceration, deliberate starvation and enslavement.

North Korean women defectors in South Korea frequently testify to the abuses they have faced inside the isolated country.

According to defector testimonials, North Korean women are subject to forced abortions and are obliged to grant sexual favors to their supervisors.