North Korea to host UN human rights official

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday announced that Catalina Devandas-Aguilar, UN special rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, will spend six days in North Korea to learn about how disabled people - especially children - live in the country.

"My upcoming visit to DPRK represents a key opportunity to learn first-hand about national realities, laws, policies and programs concerning people with disabilities, as well as the challenges and opportunities the Government faces in implementing the Convention," Devandas-Aguilar said in the statement, referring to the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities.

North Korea ratified the convention, which was adopted in 2006, in December 2016. It aims to "promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity."

Devandas-Aguilar was invited by the North Korean government to make the trip, in which she will visit Pyongyang and the South Hwanghae Province.

A press conference in Pyongyang is scheduled for May 8, and Devandas-Aguilar is expected to deliver a full report to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2018.