The U.N. special rapporteur for North Korean human rights has emphasized the need for a “new way of thinking” to improve the country’s human rights situation, proposing that the international community could start by offering the DPRK 60 million COVID-19 vaccines.

In an advance draft of his final report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Tomás Ojea Quintana underscores his concern that North Korea’s human rights situation has worsened during the pandemic and calls for an approach “driven by the needs of the North Korean people rather than any other agenda.”