Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL13643):
Question by Lord Alton of Liverpool:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of reports that workers in North Korea have been sent to Russia to provide overseas labour contrary to the sanctions imposed under UN Security Council Resolution 2375 (2017); what assessment they have made of how such workers are selected; and what plans they have to raise this issue at the UN Security Council. (HL13643)
Tabled on: 24 February 2021
Answer:
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon:
The UK government has been very clear that international law must be upheld, and that UN sanctions put in place to combat North Korea’s illegal nuclear and ballistic missile programmes must be fully enforced. The UN Panel of Experts have reported that North Korean overseas workers continue to be present in member states despite the passing of the repatriation deadline in December 2019. We fully agree with the panel’s assessment and continue to raise our concerns with the members of the Security Council in New York, including Russia, most recently on 24 February. The UK has not made an independent assessment of how such workers are selected. The UK calls for the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea.
Date and time of answer: 10 Mar 2021 at 16:50.
==============================
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL13645):
Question by Lord Alton of Liverpool :
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to raise the implementation of the recommendations in the report by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea published on 7 February 2014, at the UN Human Rights Council; and in particular, the recommendation that the situation in North Korea should be referred to the International Criminal Court. (HL13645)
Tabled on: 24 February 2021
Answer:
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon:
The UK is clear there must be no impunity for the most serious international crimes. We welcome and support the Human Rights Council resolution on human rights in North Korea which stresses the importance of following up recommendations from the UN Commission of Inquiry Report on Human Rights in the DPRK, and provides the basis for further work on a credible framework for accountability for human rights violations in the country. North Korea is not a State Party to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and so a referral of the situation in the DPRK could be made only by the UN Security Council in this instance. The international community has a responsibility to respond to human rights violations in North Korea and the UK continues to press annual debate on the DPRK’s human rights issues in the UN Security Council.
Date and time of answer: 10 Mar 2021 at 16:48.
