South Korean FM to attend UN meeting on North Korea, Japan issues

South Korea's top diplomat will attend a U.N. human rights meeting this week to urge more international efforts to improve North Korea's rights conditions and Japan's swift resolution of the longstanding issue of wartime sex slavery, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. During his three-day trip from Tuesday, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se is scheduled to make a keynote speech at the 25th regular session of the U.N. Human Rights Council on Wednesday. Yun plans to "make an assessment of the recent report by the U.N. Committee of Inquiry (COI) on North Korea's human rights situation," the ministry said in a press release. Wrapping up its year-long investigation, the COI last month released its final report and plans to officially submit it to the U.N. Council. The U.N. panel states in the report that the communist country has committed "organized, extensive and grave crimes against humanity," recommending the U.N. to refer the case to the International Criminal Court. The Seoul minister also plans to "call for Japan to quickly resolve the matter of its wartime sex slavery, which is a universal human rights issue and not just a matter of the past but for today," the ministry said. Historians say up to 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, were coerced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers during World War II. Of the 237 Korean women who have come forward as former sex slaves, only 55 are still alive. "It is the first time since 2006 that a South Korean foreign minister is attending the rights council meeting. It tells us how serious the Seoul government takes issues related to North Korea and Japan," a senior official here said, requesting anonymity. "We've sternly dealt with the sex slavery issue. In accordance, Minister Yun is expected to raise the matter in the international arena in a grave manner." In her address marking Korea's 1919 nationwide uprising against Japan's colonial rule last Saturday, President Park Geun-hye urged Japan to stop denying its wrongful past and face up to history. Tokyo has snubbed Seoul's repeated calls for the resolution of the grievances of the victims through compensation and a sincere apology.