New York: Japan and three other countries Friday released a joint statement condemning North Korea’s human rights violations, following the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Sunday.

The statement was issued by the three U.N. Security Council members of Japan, the United States and Albania, as well as by South Korea, slated to join the U.N. panel next month.

North Korea “still has one of the worst records of human rights violations and abuses–both within its own territory and outside,” the statement said, referring to its abductions of Japanese and South Korean nationals and executions of its own citizens.

The statement also called on all U.N. member states “to uphold their international legal obligations” to protect citizens who may be persecuted, apparently bearing in mind China’s forced repatriation of North Korean defectors.

In August this year, the Security Council held an open meeting to discuss the human rights situation in North Korea for the first time in about six years.

At the meeting, chaired by the United States, many participants called for an end to human rights violations and weapons development in North Korea, while China and Russia opposed dealing with human rights issues within the Security Council.

JIJI Press