UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on the second day of a visit to his South Korean homeland, called on North Korea Friday to improve the human rights situation there, according to dpa. There few areas of North Korean life where human rights were inadequately protected and areas where these were abused, he said after talks with South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung Soo. "This is an unacceptable situation," said Ban, who had been South Korean foreign minister from 2004 until 2006. The Pyongyang regime has long been accused of massive interference in the basic freedoms of its people, with international human right organisations and North Korean refugees reporting cases of torture, public executions, prisoner camps and forced labour all enforced for political reasons. Ban stressed his readiness to visit North Korea in order to support efforts to end Pyongyang's controversial nuclear programme.
