Thirty-one countries including South Korea, the U.S. and Japan have openly criticized North Korea's human rights violations.
 
They issued a joint statement in New York on Friday following a closed-door UN Security Council meeting on the North's human rights issue. 
 
In the statement delivered by U.S. ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the countries called the North Korean government "one of the worst violators" of human rights and said the abuses are well documented.
 
Citing summary executions, assassinations, surveillance, intimidation, abductions and forced repatriation, the statement urged the North to resolve all outstanding issues with detainees, abductees, and the disappeared and immediately return them to their homes.
 
The ambassadors of the 31 nations said the modern world has no place for such brutality and that they commend and support all efforts to hold perpetrators accountable.
 
They said it is time for the Security Council to address the issue publicly and urged all council members to support an open briefing in 2023 where they can discuss the rights violations and abuses committed by Pyongyang and explore ways to incorporate human rights into the peace and security diplomacy of the Korean Peninsula.