North Korea Home to 'Grave Human Rights Violations,' UN Says - East Idaho News
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North Korea Home to ‘Grave Human Rights Violations,’ UN Says

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Thinkstock 021714 NKFlag?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1392661713099iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Concrete steps are necessary, the U.S. State Department says, to remedy the human rights situation in North Korea, which is “among the world’s worst.”

Those claims come after a United Nations Human Right Council Commission of Inquiry that showed “widespread, systematic, and grave human rights violations.” The State Department urged the North Korean government to “take concrete steps” to improve the living conditions of North Koreans.

The Commission of Inquiry held public hearings in Seoul, Tokyo, London and Washington which detailed the brutality and horror that the U.S. hopes can be ended through increased awareness of the “deplorable human rights conditions” in North Korea.

According to BBC News, the North Korean government refused to cooperate with the report and rejected its conclusions. The report detailed “an almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,” violence, “entrenched patterns of discrimination,” and the use of food as a way to control the population.

The results of the inquiry will be publicly presented next month. It is not clear what response the international community will take.

Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio

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