National Human Rights Commission of Korea Annual Report 2017 61 Section 4. S  pecial Program: Increased Activities to Improve Human Rights in North Korea 1. Overview 1) Background In response to an opinion expressed by the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee in April 2003 that the Commission should be the lead for North Korean human rights programs, the Commission established a non-standing North Korean human rights research out research on North Korean human rights situations, developed and recommended policies, and organized forums for discussions. In 2006, the Commission issued a position statement expressed its will for active involvement. In 2007, the Commission put North Korean human rights issues on the list of its top ten priority tasks. In 2008, one of its top six programs was to increase policy activities to improve human rights conditions in North Korea. From 2009, the Commission pursued improvement of North Korean human rights as a special program. The North Korean human rights situations have not improved, despite the February 2014 report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK, a referral of the issue to the Security Council, and the annual adoption of North Korean human rights resolutions by the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly. Consequently, the international community has advanced discussions of how to hold assailants accountable and punish them. With the adoption of a North Korean human rights resolution in March 2016, the 31st session of the Human Rights Council created a group of independent experts for an international legal review of ways to punish North Korean human rights violators. On two different occasions, the US State Department announced a list of entities and individuals responsible for serious human rights infringements or censorship in North Korea. Newly included were a request for resumption of the reunion of separated families, which has not happened since October 2015, and verification of the life or death of foreigners held captive by the North Korean authorities. The North Korean Human Rights Act was enacted on 3 March 2016 and entered into force on Commission's Major Activities regarding North Korean human rights, outlining the principles and policy directions, and Part 2 team by the decision of the 40th Plenary Committee in the same year. The team has since carried