South Korea's vice foreign minister plans to make a speech at a United Nations meeting on human rights in Geneva next week to raise awareness of North Korea's dismal human rights conditions and Japan's wartime sex slaves, officials said Thursday.
  

South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul is expected on Tuesday to address Pyongyang's human rights issue and the promotion of women's rights at the high-level segment of the 28th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council that will run from March 2-5, according to the foreign ministry.
  

"Along with the North's rights situation, Cho plans to raise the issue of the Japanese imperial army's sexual enslavement of Korean women in terms of women's universal human rights in his speech," said an official at the foreign ministry, asking not to be named.
  

This year's U.N. meeting is expected to draw further attention from the international community as North Korea's top diplomat Ri Su-yong is also expected to deliver a speech on Tuesday to voice opposition against the global move to slam the North's rights conditions, according to a diplomatic source.
  

Ri is widely expected to give his address ahead of Cho, given that a foreign minister is entitled to precede lower-ranking officials, including a vice foreign minister, when delivering a speech at a U.N. meeting, according to the source. It will mark the first time that a top North Korean diplomat will address the U.N. rights council.
  

Pyongyang has long been labeled one of the worst human rights violators in the world. The communist regime does not tolerate dissent, holds hundreds of thousands of people in political prison camps, and keeps tight control over outside information.
  

In December, the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted a landmark resolution that pushes to refer the North to the International Criminal Court for human rights violations.
  

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry unveiled its report in February 2014 that accused Pyongyang of "systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights."
  

During his three-day visit to Geneva that starts on Monday, Cho will also deliver a speech at the Conference on Disarmament on Wednesday, calling for global attention to resolve North Korea's nuclear weapons program, the foreign ministry said.
  

North Korea's top diplomat Ri is also expected to speak at the conference earlier on Tuesday, which is also the first of its kind, according to the source.
  

Established in 1979, the Conference on Disarmament is a multilateral forum to negotiate arms control and disarmament. This year's conference kicked off on Jan. 19 and will run until March 27. (Yonhap)