Overview
- Volker Türk, who spoke in Seoul on Wednesday, said two North Korean prisoners held in Ukraine are covered by the non-refoulement rule, which bars sending people back to likely harm.
- He warned that grave abuses in North Korea continue and may amount to crimes against humanity, calling for criminal and non-judicial accountability, including a possible referral to the International Criminal Court.
- In meetings with South Korea’s prime minister and top ministers, he discussed closer cooperation and backed work on AI “guardrails,” while Seoul pitched a UN-linked global AI hub.
- He urged quick steps to reconnect separated families and to disclose the fate of abducted and disappeared people, adding that next week’s visit by a North Korean women’s soccer team could help rebuild trust.
- The three-day visit, the first by a UN human rights chief to South Korea since 2015, wraps with a Thursday keynote in Gwangju as OHCHR pairs engagement with firm rights standards.