Ri Il-gyu, a former counselor for political affairs at the North Korean Embassy in Cuba, speaks during a forum at a hotel in Jung District, Seoul, Sept. 27. Yonhap

International attention to North Korea's human rights abuses has had a perceptible effect in raising awareness of human rights among the country's general public, a former North Korean diplomat said Tuesday, calling for sustained global efforts on the issue.

Ri Il-gyu, a former counselor for political affairs at the North Korean Embassy in Cuba who defected to South Korea last year, made the point during a discussion at the 2024 Global Dialogue on Korean Peninsula Unification, co-hosted by the National Unification Advisory Council and Yonhap News Agency.

"Since the 1990s, the human rights situation in North Korea has significantly changed," Ri said, citing the impact from international efforts to press North Korea to improve its human rights condition, as well as the inflow of outside information.

"Before that time, the term 'human rights' was unknown to North Koreans, but now they are familiar with the concept to the extent that some even blurt out 'Isn't this a human rights violation?'" he told the session.

Since 1995, the North Korean regime has somewhat changed its attitude to human rights issues due to international pressure, but the fundamental human rights situation in the North has still not improved, Ri noted.

"(Such an attitude change) is merely a strategy to deflect criticism and pressure from the international community regarding human rights violations," he said, stressing the need to continue sending propaganda leaflets into North Korea and to win over North Koreans dispatched overseas. (Yonhap)