By Yi Whan-woo



South Korea is expected to host a United Nations field office on North Korean human rights in Seoul in the next few months, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.



It said the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and Seoul Metropolitan Government initially had worked on setting up the office at the Seoul Global Center Building in Jongno-gu by the end of March.



The two sides then postponed their plan because of some issues to settle before launching the office, which will be run by OHCHR, according to the government.



"The date for launch is expected to be June at the latest, although our findings show that schedule is not fixed," a foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity.



"The central government's role is to ensure that the U.N. and the Seoul City government consult each other in harmony and we can't intervene in their decision-making process.



"It's totally up to them when to establish the office."



This is the first time that the U.N. will have launched a field-based structure exclusively monitoring Pyongyang's state-perpetrated human rights violations, according to the government.



Meanwhile, the Korean-language edition of the Voice of America reported early Wednesday that the U.N. will open such an office during the second quarter of this year.



The U.S. media outlet said OHCHR is "wrapping up" its administrative work necessary to establish the office, and also has taken steps to hire employees for related jobs.



According to the government, the U.N. in May 2014 proposed opening the field office in South Korea amid growing international concerns over North Korea's dire human rights record.



The U.N. has been stepping up pressure against the repressive regime. In December, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution that asks the U.N. Security Council to refer North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands.



Citing the U.N. Commission of Inquiry's report on North Korea released in February, the resolution accused the reclusive state of running political prison camps where up to 120,000 people are thought to be detained.



