NEW YORK: US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Thursday that the United States has requested that the UN Security Council hold an open meeting on Aug. 17 to discuss the human rights situation in North Korea.

Japan, South Korea, and Albania joined in the request.

The meeting is intended to discuss the issue of Japanese abductees in North Korea, as well as the reclusive country’s neglect of the human rights of its citizens while focusing on its nuclear and missile development programs.

This will be the first Security Council open meeting on the human rights situation in North Korea since 2017.

The Security Council had held a series of open meetings on the matter since 2014, but in recent years such meetings have been limited to informal consultations due to opposition from China and Russia.

China and Russia may seek a vote on whether to hold the Aug. 17 meeting that day. But a senior US official expressed confidence on Thursday that at least the nine votes needed to hold the meeting would be secured. The possible vote cannot be vetoed.

At the meeting, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk and Elizabeth Salmon, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea, will give a briefing.

“Protecting people around the world is an integral part of the UN Charter and an important responsibility of the Security Council,” Thomas-Greenfield stressed in a statement.

JIJI Press