N Korea, UN investigator meet on possible visit

North Korean officials has said they met for the first time with a United Nations special investigator on human rights and "envisage" him visiting their country.
A UN official confirmed the meeting yesterday. A visit by a UN human rights official would be a breakthrough in international efforts to have a firsthand look at the way the deeply impoverished but nuclear-armed country treats its citizens.
But the North's offer likely is another attempt to stop a growing international call to refer its dismal human rights situation to the International Criminal Court.
The UN special rapporteur is "very optimistic" about the possibility of a visit, "and very happy to hear from our side," Choe Myong Nam, a North Korean foreign ministry official in charge of human rights issues, told The Associated Press shortly after the meeting.

Choe said no date had been fixed, but his country is looking for a "new and objective report" on North Korea's human rights situation. "Previous reports he has prepared have been based on rumors and fabrications, as well as distortions," he said.
The meeting comes a day before Marzuki Darusman presents his annual report on North Korea to the UN General Assembly's human rights committee. An advance copy of his report, obtained by The Associated Press, "strongly urges" that the UN Security Council refer the country to the International Criminal Court over its human rights record.

Darusman could not immediately be reached yesterday evening for more details.

The North has been on the defensive ever since a groundbreaking UN commission of inquiry report early this year laid out widespread abuses, including a harsh system of political prison camps holding up to 120,000 people.
Darusman, a former member of the commission, echoes the commission's call for an ICC referral by the Security Council.
A resolution now with the General Assembly's human rights committee, drafted by the European Union and Japan, calls for the same.
A UN official said the North Koreans yesterday wanted the language about an ICC referral removed from the resolution, but they did not directly link that to the idea of a visit by Darusman. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.