UN special rapporteur urges media restraint on North Korean POWs, dialogue with Pyongyang
Published: 06 Feb. 2026, 17:42
Updated: 06 Feb. 2026, 18:39
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- MICHAEL LEE
- [email protected]
Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI
![Elizabeth Salmon, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, speaks during a press conference in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Feb. 6. [YONHAP]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2026/02/06/72477745-208e-4727-943f-ba28d08b00d5.jpg)
Elizabeth Salmon, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, speaks during a press conference in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Feb. 6. [YONHAP]
Elizabeth Salmon, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said on Friday that the two North Korean prisoners of war (POWs) captured in Ukraine must be treated in accordance with international law, warning that political pressure and intense media exposure risk endangering the men and their families.
During a press conference in Seoul to deliver her end-of-mission statement during her third official visit to South Korea, Salmon said the landscape is grim for international justice, with “multilateralism under attack” and conflicts raging around the world.
Despite this backdrop, she said legal standards must be upheld for the two North Korean POWs captured by Ukrainian forces in January 2025 while fighting alongside Russian troops. Both have reportedly expressed a wish to resettle in South Korea.
However, Salmon said South Korean media reports and video interviews with the men potentially violate international rules governing the treatment of POWs.
“Under international humanitarian law, POWs should be safeguarded against torture, abuse, humiliation and public curiosity,” she said, citing Article 13 of the 1949 Third Geneva Convention.
She warned that “the exposure of these two young men may result in reprisals for their families and also the soldiers themselves if they are repatriated to the DPRK,” referring to North Korea by the acronym for its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
While Ukrainian officials made clear they understand Kyiv’s obligations under the principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits returning individuals to a place where they face a real risk of torture, Salmon added that it is “up to Ukraine to respect international law and make this decision.”
Ukraine’s options, she said, are to “send them to a third state or grant them asylum.”
She stressed that “South Korea does not get to decide what to do with these two people” and further urged the media to “avoid or refrain from exposing the POWs.”
Salmon then noted that members of the UN Security Council “are well aware” of demands for accountability regarding North Korea’s involvement in the war, but acknowledged that “no further developments have been made.”
The European Union is reportedly “trying to create a tribunal” addressing North Korean human rights violations and the regime’s involvement in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though Salmon cautioned that those efforts remain at an early stage.
Turning to inter-Korean relations, Salmon said human rights “must be part of any future dialogue” between Seoul and Pyongyang.
Referring to seven South Korean Christians detained by the North between 2013 and 2014, she said “any future dialogue with the DPRK must include the return of these people as a top priority,” as well as reunions for families separated by the 1950–53 Korean War.
She also said she was “encouraged by the policy of peaceful coexistence” being pursued by the South Korean government, as she supports “taking any opportunity to break the isolation of the DPRK.”
Regarding concerns that Seoul’s emphasis on improving Pyongyang’s human rights record may be waning under the liberal administration of President Lee Jae Myung, Salmon said South Korean officials she met over the past week “expressed willingness to work with civil society and groups on North Korean human rights issues.”
Salmon met Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jin-ah on Feb. 2 and Vice Unification Minister Kim Nam-joong on Wednesday.
She urged South Korean officials to invite defectors “to participate meaningfully in discussions” on North Korea policy and resettlement programs and “not just see them as just victims.”
Salmon also noted that North Korea accepted two recommendations during its Universal Periodic Review in November 2024: reducing the number of crimes punishable by death and limiting capital punishment to crimes meeting the international threshold of “most serious crimes.”
Nonetheless, she said her office has received testimonies that Pyongyang continues to carry out public executions, despite such acts being “completely against international law.”
![Elizabeth Salmon, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, speaks during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Feb. 6. [MICHAEL LEE]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2026/02/06/c35b620f-295d-4042-9509-ab6ab20985c5.jpg)
Elizabeth Salmon, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, speaks during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Feb. 6. [MICHAEL LEE]
In a separate interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily, Salmon expressed frustration that she has not been able to visit North Korea as part of her mission to monitor human rights issues in the country, which has refused to allow staff from UN agencies that were once active in the country to return.
“It’s unfortunate that the UN cannot go back to the DPRK,” she said during the interview, as she considers the North to have “an obligation to cooperate with the UN as a state party.” The presence of UN staff and a country team on the ground, she said, “is essential to guarantee independent human rights monitoring.”
She also noted that she has urged states with the potential to influence North Korea’s behavior, such as China, to refrain from repatriating defectors, but that officials in Beijing have “repeatedly reaffirmed their position that escapees are illegal migrants.”
In a polarized world, she said, annual UN resolutions on North Korean human rights remain one of the few areas of international consensus, but the challenge “is to implement that consensus.”
“The worst scenario,” she added, “would be to forget.”
BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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