The 7th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council is currently being held in Geneva, Switzerland, from March 3 to 28. As the founding member of the Council since its establishment in June 2006, the Korean government has actively participated in the discussions on the major human rights issues, while addressing the institutional problems of the Council.

Deputy Minister for International Organizations and Global Issues Park In-kook of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade attended the High-level Segment of this session as head of Korean delegation. High-level representatives including ministers or vice ministers from about 70 member states participated in this High-level Segment, and the respective delegations delivered keynote speeches on the works of the Human Rights Council, on its efforts to improve human rights situations in their countries, and on the assessment of global human rights situations. 

In his speech on March 3, Deputy Minister Park stressed on the importance of making the Council an efficient, responsive and fair body with a result-focused approach in a spirit of dialogue and cooperation among the member states. He mentioned that "the Council should seek to find ways to encourage cooperation by providing technical assistance and capacity building to help governments willing to improve their human rights records", as well as "introduce realistic means to engage governments less willing or not positively responding to the concerns of the international community". In this regard, Deputy Minister Park noted that the Universal Periodic Review(UPR), the mechanism that will allow the records of all countries to be scrutinized from April 2008 on, is to serve a valuable tool in overcoming "politicization of human rights issues, selectivity and double standards", which were mainly criticized during the inter-governmental discussion on human rights issues. The Republic of Korea, scheduled to be reviewed in May through this mechanism of the Council, will launch a wide range of consultations among relevant ministries, the National Human Rights Commission and NGOs.

Along with the aforementioned institutional issues of the Human Rights Council, Mr. Park addressed the grave human rights situations in Darfur and Myanmar. In particular, he called upon the Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK) "to take appropriate measures to address the international community's concern", underscoring human rights as a "universal value". In 2006, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the former Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea and head of Korean delegation to the UN Human Rights Council at that time, noted the concerns over the human rights situation in the DPRK and called upon Pyongyang "to engage in human rights dialogue with the international community that would lead to technical and institutional cooperation." In 2007, the Korean government pledged to "continue to make efforts to bring about substantial improvements of conditions of life in the DPRK" in line with its policy of inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation.