`Heartbreaking to see dismal N.K. human rights,` Seoul`s envoy to UN says

“Two years ago, when South Korea first attended the U.N. Security Council as a non-permanent member, the council discussed North Korea’s missile and nuclear issues. Today, the last meeting (of my two-year term), the council’s agenda is North Korean issue (human rights). It is purely coincidental, but that saddens my heart.”

Oh Joon, South Korean Ambassador to the UN, was the 14th speaker at the U.N. Security Council meeting where North Korea’s human rights issue was adopted as an official agenda on Monday. Excluding the chair country (Chad) out of 15 member countries, the South Korean envoy was the last speaker. The atmosphere in the meeting room became solemn when Oh talked about "why his heart gets saddened."

“North Koreans are not ‘anybodies’ to South Koreans. There are millions of separated families between two Koreas. Even though we never hear from them, even though by now the pain of separation has become a cold fact of life, we know that they are there, just hundreds of kilometers away from where we live,” said the ambassador.

“It is heart-breaking to read gross violation of human rights in the Commission of Inquiry (COI) report on North Korea. While listening to (horrible) testimonies of North Korean defectors, we cry together and share their sorrow as if we suffer from the same tragedy. I have a sincere desire for innocent people of North Korea, our brothers and sisters, as I leave the U.N. Security Council, he said. "One day in the future when we look back on what we did (the council’s discussion on North Korean human rights issue) today, we will be able to say that we did the right thing for the people of North Korea, who have the same human rights just like us."

Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, reportedly sent a text message to the South Korean ambassador after the meeting ended, saying that the speech was the most powerful among all the speeches that I’ve ever heard from the U.N. Security Council meeting.