But, in what is seen as a further sign of North Korea’s growing attention to international criticism, the North’s government is sending its foreign minister to participate in the United Nations General Assembly for the first time in 15 years, Mr. King said.

The 268 recommendations were made under a review process that all member states of the United Nations undergo every four years. The North’s ambassador, So Se-pyong, speaking before the Human Rights Council, signaled that the North’s leadership was now willing to consider suggestions about, among other things, freedom of thought, “free and unimpeded access to all populations in need” for humanitarian agencies and freedom for them to monitor distribution of their aid. The prevention of human rights violations and punishment for violators were also on the list.

But Mr. So said the North had rejected some recommendations that were “based on distorted information provided by hostile forces which aimed to dismantle the country’s social system,” including calls for unfettered access to detainees for the International Committee of the Red Cross, disclosure of the extent and methods of capital punishment, and the end of restrictions on movement and expression.

North Korea has made some progress on disability issues, Mr. King told the council. But laying out the breadth of international concerns, he added that it also needed to “acknowledge the existence of political prison camps, to dismantle all such camps, to release all political prisoners, and to abandon the use of torture, arbitrary detention, summary execution, forced abortion and other forms of sexual violence.”

Last week, North Korea released its own report on the state of human rights in the country that portrayed accusations of abuses as politically motivated. The report did not mention the prison gulags, which defectors have described in detail, and instead claimed that North Koreans enjoyed a wide range of freedoms. It also blamed the United States for blocking a dialogue on human rights with what it called anti-North Korean policies.