A/HRC/RES/40/20
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to prevent and suppress crimes against humanity
and to ensure that perpetrators were prosecuted and brought to justice,
Concerned that the precarious humanitarian situation in the country is exacerbated
by the restrictions imposed by the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea on the free and unimpeded access for humanitarian agencies to all populations in
need,
Acknowledging General Assembly resolution 73/180, in which the Assembly noted
with concern the findings of the United Nations that over 10 million people in the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea were estimated to be undernourished and that most
children under 24 months of age and 50 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women had
insufficient dietary diversity, leading to micronutrient deficiencies and an unacceptably
high prevalence of chronic and acute malnutrition, condemning the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea for its national policies that, among others, divert its resources into
pursuing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles over the welfare of its people and their
access to food, and emphasizing the necessity for the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea to respect and ensure the welfare and inherent dignity of the people in the country, as
referred to by the Security Council in its resolutions 2321 (2016) of 30 November 2016,
2371 (2017) of 5 August 2017, 2375 (2017) of 11 September 2017 and 2397 (2017) of 22
December 2017,
Reaffirming that it is the responsibility of the Government of the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea to ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and
fundamental freedoms of its entire population, including by ensuring equal access to
adequate food, as well as, among others, freedom of religion or belief, freedom of
expression and freedom of association and assembly,
Recognizing that particular risk factors affect women, children, persons with
disabilities and the elderly, and the need to ensure the full enjoyment of all their human
rights and fundamental freedoms by them against neglect, abuse, exploitation and violence,
and taking note in this regard of the concluding observations of the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women on the combined second to fourth periodic
reports of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea2 and the concluding observations of
the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the fifth periodic report of the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea,3
Noting with appreciation the visit of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons
with disabilities to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, encouraging the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to implement all of the recommendations contained
in the report of the Special Rapporteur on her visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea, submitted to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-seventh session, 4 and noting
with appreciation also the submission of the initial report of the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities in December 2018,
Acknowledging the participation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in
the second cycle of the universal periodic review, noting the acceptance by the Government
of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea of 113 out of the 268 recommendations
contained in the outcome of the review and its stated commitment to implement them and
to look into the possibility of implementing a further 58 recommendations, and
emphasizing the importance of the implementation of the recommendations in order to
address the grave human rights violations in the country,
Recognizing the important work of the treaty bodies in monitoring the
implementation of international human rights obligations, and emphasizing the need for the
2
3
4
2
CEDAW/C/PRK/CO/2-4.
CRC/C/PRK/CO/5.
A/HRC/37/56/Add.1.