Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2015-10-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to raise the case of any of the public executions in North Korea between 2010 and 2014 detailed in the latest report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in that country.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We remain strongly opposed to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances.

The UK, working with the EU and Japan, has ensured that annual UN resolutions consistently call on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to end its use of the death penalty. We also use our diplomatic relations to raise concerns directly with North Korean officials.

British diplomats raised specific concerns with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Pyongyang following the execution of Jang Song Thaek in December 2013.

In October, the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire), met the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid, to discuss a coordinated approach to addressing human rights concerns across the globe, including the DPRK.