A prominent UN human rights official this week condemned recent public insults by a top North Korean official against defectors, amid a mounting propaganda campaign by Pyongyang condemning escapees living in the South.

Speaking to NK News over email, Tomás Ojea Quintana, the United Nations special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, urged North Korea to cease its mounting invective against escapees, who state media has labelled “human trash.”

“North Koreans who flee the country, most of them women, escape hardships in their livelihood and oppression from the political system,” he said. 

“They are victims of human rights abuses, and