An independent U.N. body’s investigation into North Korea’s human rights abuses will provide the first look into problems in a country during peacetime, rather than during conflict, a senior South Korean diplomat said Sunday.

Choi Seok-young, South Korean ambassador to Geneva, said the Commission of Inquiry by the U.N. Human Rights Council will investigate “grave, organized and systematic human rights violations” and will hold the leadership in the violating country accountable for such abuses.

The U.N. established the COI on North Korea in March. The independent body is scheduled to submit its report, containing findings and recommendations, to the U.N. Human Rights Council in March next year.

“So far, the COIs on Cote d’Ivoire, Libya and Syria have investigated human rights violations during times of conflict,”

Choi said. “North Korea is in a different situation than these countries, but it’s widely believed that human rights violations are quite systematic in North Korea.”

The COI on North Korea was formed under a resolution that condemns human rights abuses in the communist state. Choi said the word “accountability” used in the resolution should be highlighted.

The resolution states that the commission will “intensively investigate for a period of one year the human rights violations perpetrated by North Korea’s government with a view to ensuring full accountability, in particular where these violations may amount to crimes against humanity.”

“In human rights, we use that term to describe political and legal responsibility for the violating government,” Choi said.

“This resolution is quite strong in that regard.”

Choi said after the COI’s report is compiled next year, further discussions will be held on the follow-up measures. He noted that the U.N. dispatched peacekeepers to Cote d’Ivoire to monitor the human rights situation there after the COI’s investigation, but said it’s not yet certain whether the U.N. will follow the same course of action for North Korea.

The ambassador said the COI’s report on the North will provide the first comprehensive look into human rights violations in the country, since the U.N. Human Rights Council had previously dealt with individual allegations, such as torture and abuse in labor camps, separately.

“Since it will be difficult to visit North Korea in person, (the commission’s investigators) will conduct interviews with North Korean defectors,” Choi said. “The COI will also receive major assistance from documents in South Korea, Japan, the U.S., China and Russia. We must provide investigators with accurate translation of our data that can corroborate human rights violations in the North.”

North Korea has long denied accusations of human rights abuses and considers them an attempt to topple its regime. (Yonhap News)