A major forum on the North Korean human rights problem will open here later Thursday, joined by a U.N. special rapporteur and a senior U.S. envoy, with the communist nation facing heavy international pressure over the matter.

The fourth Chaillot Human Rights Forum will be held for two days with the theme of "North Korean Human Rights and Happiness for a Unified Korea," according to the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU).

In the first session, Marzuki Darusman, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea, and Robert King, Washington's special envoy for the issue, will have a panel discussion moderated by Lee Jung-hoon, South Korea's human rights ambassador.

It will be followed by discussions by other experts on the North's political prison camps.

And then, participants plan to have a closed-door session on the second day, said the KINU.

The institute said the forum will provide a chance to explore ways to address the North Korean human rights issue.

"Improving the human rights situation in North Korea is one of the major goals for South Korea's policy toward North Korea," KINU president Choi Jin-wook said. "For Korea, the value of human rights is inseparable from the value of unification."

The event comes as the U.N. prepares to vote on a resolution denouncing the North for human rights abuse. 

Such a resolution against Pyongyang is not new. But this year's draft proposal, co-sponsored by the European Union and Japan, recommends the Security Council consider referral of the situation in North Korea to the International Criminal Court. (Yonhap)