By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
South Korea insisted Monday that a United Nations human rights office will open as scheduled in Seoul this Tuesday, despite the protests of North Korea.
Pyongyang has demonstrated its opposition by pulling out of this year's Summer Universiade games in the South Korean city of Gwangju.
Less than two weeks ahead of the Universiade, the event's organizer said that the North had announced the cancelation of a plan to send 100 university athletes and officials because of the upcoming move by the UN and Seoul.
Organizing committee officials were apparently still hopeful of a change of heart from North Korea, according to local news agency Yonhap, despite the country missing two registration deadlines this month.
Pyongyang had already condemned the opening of the Seoul office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as "an unpardonable provocation."
The office is set to focus on North Korea's notorious human rights record, as recommended by a UN report last year. The most damning evidence against Pyongyang so far has been defector testimony, smuggled footage and satellite imagery of prison camps.
"The North Korean government should not criticize the establishment of the UN human rights office but instead work with the UN and the international community to improve the North Korean people's human rights situation and quality of life,” a South Korean unification ministry spokesperson told reporters at a Monday briefing.
The Koreas technically remain at war after an armistice, rather than a peace treaty, brought the 1950-53 Korean War to a close.
