Seoul, South Korea - The agenda for the third inter-Korean summit scheduled for April 27 is unlikely to have North Korean human rights issues despite calls for the inclusion by more than 200 NGOs earlier this week.

The NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, sent a joint letter to South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier this week to urge his North Korean counterpart to follow the UN's human rights recommendations and facilitate human rights talks between the two Koreas.

The letter also pushed for regular reunions of separated families and increase inter-Korean people-to-people contact.

However, South Korea's Ministry of Unification confirmed human rights in North Korea was not on the agenda.

"The main agenda will be denuclearisation, establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula and improving North-South relations. Nothing more, nothing less," Baik Tae-hyun, spokesperson for the ministry, told Al Jazeera.

This will be the first inter-Korean summit since 2007 and only the third since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

It is scheduled to be attended by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon.

The human rights issues will not be given high priority because it is a sensitive issue and may cause "a psychological discomfort" at the summit, according to Hong Min, director of the North Korean studies division at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

"The meeting is a tight one-day event. There won't be enough time to talk about everything. The focus will be on confirming each other's stance on denuclearisation," said Hong.

"North Korean human rights issues are likely to be discussed later at a wider international level with the participation of the international community."

The joint letter sent to President Moon reflects the NGOs' concerns that human rights issues have been sidelined due to other major political issues.

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"The South Korean government has been reluctant to talk about North Korean human rights," said Ahn Myeong-cheol, head of the Seoul-based NK Watch which consists of survivors of North Korea's political prison camps and one of the 40 organisations that signed the letter.

"President Moon was a human rights lawyer who had been fighting for democracy and human rights in the country.

"North Korean human rights are as equally important as human rights in South Korea. It will be an irony if he doesn't bring up North Korean human rights in the summit."

The Korean War Abductees Family Union estimates that between 82,000 and 100,000 South Korean citizens were abducted across the border during the Korean War.

Family members of those individuals signed the letter sent to President Moon and urged North Korea to report the records of abductees and to return them.

"Time is ticking by to resolve the human rights-related issues," said Hwang In-cheol, head of the 1969 KAL Abductees' Families Association, whose father was kidnapped along with around 50 passengers on-board a Korean Air flight in 1969.

"The inter-Korean talks will only have sincerity when it touches on the issues that North Korea feels uncomfortable with." </s> The South Korean government said Wednesday that the issue of human rights will not be discussed at the summit with Pyongyang, to be held late April, since the focus of this meeting is denuclearization of the North.

Seoul ruled out discussions on the human rights situation in the neighboring country between the South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, contrary to what more than 40 NGOs had called for a day earlier, including Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW). </s> South Korean president on Thursday appealed for the support of the country to ensure the success of the upcoming summit with Pyongyang, calling it a rare opportunity to achieve the denuclearization of North Korea.

Moon Jae-in's appeal came during a meeting held in Seoul with a group of government advisers and other officials where he stressed the need for collective determination in the face of a summit that has led to some mistrust among the conservative parties and some segments of South Korean society. </s> SEOUL (Reuters) - Senior South Korean officials may visit Pyongyang ahead of next week’s summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a senior South Korean official said on Tuesday.

Seoul and Pyongyang are discussing the wording of a possible joint statement to be released at the summit on April 27, the official said.

Likely agenda topics include the North’s nuclear weapons program and general inter-Korean relations, but any joint economic efforts are unlikely to be discussed, he said. </s> SEOUL, April 8 (UPI) -- South Korea's top office expressed optimism on reports of contact between Washington and Pyongyang, to arrange a summit between their leaders in May.

A senior presidential official told Yonhap Sunday that if direct contact is being initiated between the United States and North Korea, Seoul sees it as a positive signal.

The liberal Moon Jae-in administration has been pushing for dialogue with the North, in efforts to achieve denuclearization as well as the establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The official's remarks came after CNN reported that Washington has been holding "secret, direct talks" to prepare for the upcoming summit between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Quoting various U.S. officials, the report said a team at the Central Intelligence Agency, led by its Director Mike Pompeo, has been working through back-channels to make arrangements for the high-profile talks.

According to the report, American officials are said to have spoken several times with their North Korean counterparts, and even met up with them up to three times to discuss preparations.

The U.S. President, last month, told South Korean presidential envoys that he accepted Kim's invitation for talks on denuclearization and would hold the talks in May.

Since then, the North Korean leader has reaffirmed his commitment to discussing denuclearization as well as his willingness to hold summit talks with the South Korean and U.S. presidents.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is continuing to pressure the North regarding its flagrant violations of human rights, the Voice of America reported Sunday.

The U.S. broadcasted quoted Katina Adams, spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, who said Washington will continue to exert pressure on Pyongyang in order to ensure it respects the basic freedom and human rights of its citizens.

She said the U.S. is deeply concerned about the state of North Korean citizens' well-being.

Regarding scepticism in Washington on the possibility of the North dismantling its nukes, Adams said the North Korean leader has asserted his willingness to denuclearize and to refrain from additional nuclear and missile test, and that he understands South Korea-U.S. joint military drills will continue as scheduled. </s> WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump may meet with South Korea's president before his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to seek a denuclearization deal, a White House official said on Wednesday.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in is due to meet with Kim on Friday, and Trump has said he could have talks with the North Korean leader in late May or June.

White House national security adviser John Bolton spoke with his South Korean counterpart, Chung Eui-yong, on Wednesday and they discussed "looking into a meeting between the two presidents that would take place before the United States-North Korea summit," the official said.

The United States is pressing North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and says it will keep up a policy of "maximum pressure" on Pyongyang through sanctions to achieve that goal.

Moon said last week that North Korea had expressed a commitment to "complete denuclearization" of the Korean peninsula, and Pyongyang said on Saturday it would immediately suspend nuclear and missile tests. </s> SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has agreed to hold high-level talks with South Korea on March 29 at the border truce village of Panmunjom to prepare for a summit of their leaders planned for April, the South said on Saturday.

A team of three officials will be led by Ri Son Gwon, the chairman of North Korea’s committee for the peaceful reunification of the country, the North told its neighbour early on Saturday, the South’s Unification Ministry said.

“This morning, North Korea sent a message through a communication channel in Panmunjom agreeing to our suggestion made on the 22nd to hold high-level inter-Korea talks,” the ministry said in a statement.

The stakes are higher for a potential summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and his North Korean counterpart that may take place by the end of May, however.

Trump this week named John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations famed for his hawkish views on Pyongyang, to replace White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.

Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on March 13, saying the two had disagreed over Iran and other foreign policy matters.

The Korean talks set for March 29 will precede musical performances in Pyongyang in early April by a group of South Korean singers making a reciprocal visit after the North sent performers to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Artists of both nations will collaborate for a show on April 3, the South’s Yonhap news agency said, citing an aide of President Moon Jae-in.

Moon plans to hold a summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un by the end of April. </s> The announced talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have been broadly welcomed following years of tension over the North's nuclear weapons and missile programs. Less clear is how such a meeting could affect human rights in North Korea, which has one of the world's most oppressive governments.

U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Tomas Ojea Quintana on Friday used the occasion of the announced talks to appeal for North Korea to also open a dialogue with the United Nations on human rights.

"I had always stressed that engagement with North Korea should never be underestimated, and also that human rights remain a priority and must not be held hostage to the security situation. In this regard, I urge the DPRK to consolidate the rapprochement with a parallel opening to U.N. human rights monitoring," he said in a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea stated in 2014 that authorities there have committed crimes against humanity including murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions, deliberate starvation, sexual violence and enforced disappearances.

Quintana also noted that family reunions — short meetings between family members who have been separated for decades by the border between North and South — have not been held since 2015 and should be resumed as soon as possible, given the age of many of those concerned.

The average age of the 59,000 people requesting a family reunion in the North is 81.

Quintana's reporting on the human rights situation in North Korea has been rejected by Pyongyang. The U.N. largely depends on interviews with North Korean defectors to learn about conditions in the country, but Quintana has been lobbying the North to engage with the U.N. on the issue.

Some critics say the meeting with a U.S. president, a first for North Korea, will bolster the reputation of a government whose rights abuses have made it an international pariah.

A presidential meeting is "a very legitimizing gesture for one of the world's most serious human rights abusers, somebody who's had relatives assassinated and executed to consolidate his regime," P.J. Crowley, U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs during the Obama administration, said Friday. "We've traded this meeting for perhaps a 90-day moratorium on nuclear and missile tests."

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence criticized the North Korean human rights record in February, en route to the Olympic Games on the Korean Peninsula.

"As we speak, an estimated 100,000 North Korean citizens labor in modern-day gulags. ... Those who dare raise their voices in dissent are imprisoned, tortured and even murdered; their children and grandchildren [are] routinely punished for their family's sins against the state," Pence said in remarks to U.S. troops at the Yokota Air Base in Japan.

U.S. President George W. Bush's top adviser on North Korean affairs, Victor Cha, wrote Friday in The New York Times that Pence's words must not be forgotten in the rush to put Trump and Kim together in a room.

"Any summit meeting cannot allow Mr. Pence's pronouncements during the Olympics about North Korea's human rights abuses to evaporate into thin air," Cha wrote. "Indeed, engaging the regime on improving its human rights record could be an important metric of the authenticity of the North's diplomatic overtures."

And rights group Human Rights Watch wrote an open letter to the United Nations on Thursday, demanding that U.N. officials and member states in the U.N. Human Rights Commission keep the pressure on North Korea to demand "real changes" that will improve the lives of North Koreans. </s> SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Leaders of South Korea, Japan and China will meet next week for a summit expected to focus on North Korea's nuclear program and other regional issues.

The three Asian countries have been holding regular trilateral summits since late 2008.

South Korea's presidential office said Tuesday that President Moon Jae-in will attend the May 9 meeting in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

The Japanese government also confirmed the meeting.

Moon's office says he will brief Abe and Li about the results of his recent summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

It says Moon also plans to discuss ways to boost three-way cooperation in achieving denuclearization and permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.
A joint letter from more than 200 NGOs urge South Korean president Moon Jae-in to discuss North Korean human rights at the April 27 summit.