The U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues is on a visit to Geneva and Brussels this week for consultations with the United Nations and the European Union, the State Department said Monday.

Amb. Robert King was in Geneva on Monday and is scheduled to visit Brussels on Tuesday to attend a policy coordination meeting on the North Korean human rights issue, according to the department and diplomatic sources in Washington.

King is scheduled to return home on Thursday.

The issue of human rights has been one of the key tools to pressure North Korea.

Last year, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution calling for referring the communist regime to the International Criminal Court for human rights violations, even though Pyongyang scrambled to tone down the resolution.

The North has denounced criticism of its human rights record as a U.S.-led attempt to topple the regime. (Yonhap)