North Korea's human rights record remains 'abysmal' and more than one third of its people go hungry despite abundant natural resources, the UN has heard.
'The freedoms from want, from fear, from discrimination, from persecution and from exploitation are transgressed with impunity by those authorities, in an astonishing setting of abuse after abuse,' said Vitit Muntarbhorn, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in the North.
Mr Muntarbhorn's report to the General Assembly also said almost 9m of the country's 24m people go hungry, with the World Food Programme able to reach fewer than 2m due to a shortfall in international aid.
The report claimed the shortage was 'undoubtedly' a response to this year's nuclear and missile tests.
Mr Muntarbhorn, who described the regime as 'repressive and cruel', told reporters after that the North's exports last year were worth €4.6bn and its natural resources were more abundant than South Korea's.
'The country is not poor and yet the money is not spent on the people,' the Thai academic said.
A report this month by South Korea's unification ministry estimated the value of undeveloped mineral reserves in the North at €4 trillion.
Mr Muntarbhorn said people in the communist state are subject to persecution, clampdowns, collective punishment, torture, arbitrary executions and public executions.
'The pervasive repression imposed by the authorities ensures that the people live in continual fear,' he said.
