UN: Tensions over North Korea worsen rights violations

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FILE - In this Aug. 10, 2017, file photo, a man watches a television screen showing U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea. North Korea said Monday, Sept. 11, 2017 it will make the United States pay a heavy price if a proposal Washington is backing to impose the toughest sanctions ever on Pyongyang is approved by the U.N. Security Council this week. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. human rights chief says North Korea’s leadership has cracked down on human rights by further restricting movements and making “horrific” prison conditions more severe amid tensions over its nuclear and missile tests.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein told the Security Council Monday that a chronic lack of food, partly due to resources which are diverted to the military, has made humanitarian aid provided by the U.N. and others “literally a lifeline for some 13 million acutely vulnerable individuals.”

He urged the council to assess the human rights impact of sanctions that have slowed aid deliveries and minimize the humanitarian consequences.

Zeid also criticized China for returning North Koreans who escape from their country, saying they “are routinely subjected to multiple forms of torture and ill-treatment.”