South Korea's national human rights watchdog said Monday it will hold an international symposium in Indonesia this week to discuss ways to improve North Korea's human rights situations.

Co-hosted by Indonesia's national institute of sciences, human rights commission, and the Indonesian Representatives to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, the symposium will take place on Tuesday at the Sultan Hotel in Jakarta, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea said.

Among the keynote speakers are Marzuki Darusman, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea; Kwon O-gwon, vice president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; Adriana Elizabeth, a researcher with Indonesia Institute of Sciences and Kim Kwang-jin, a research fellow at South Korea's Institute for National Security Strategy.

Since 2004, the South Korean human rights commission has been hosting the symposium on a regular basis to increase the world's attention to human rights situations in the North and cement international cooperation on the issue.

"We hope Indonesia will serve a bridging role for (potential inter-Korean) dialogue on human rights as a country with diplomatic ties with the two Koreas," a commission official said. "This will become a chance to discuss ways to improve North Korea's human rights together with ASEAN countries that have remained relatively passive on solving the issue."

North Korea has long been labeled one of the worst human rights violators in the world as it suppresses dissent, holds hundreds of thousands of people in gulags and puts the lid on outside information.

In December, the United Nations adopted a resolution against the communist nation's abysmal human rights record, which includes a recommendation for the Security Council to refer the North's leaders to the International Criminal Court. 

Pyongyang has bristled at such criticism, calling it a U.S.-led attempt to topple its regime. (Yonhap)