North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is sensitive to international criticism of his regime’s human rights record, ordering measures to deflect attention from abuses but also enacting some limited reforms, according to two former DPRK diplomats.

“Even though Kim Jong Un looks calm on the outside, he suffers under the pressure of the international community’s human rights offensive and tries to block these efforts,” Ri Il Gyu, a former political counselor at the North Korean Embassy in Cuba, said on Monday.