Tomas Ojea Quintana (C), U.N. special envoy on human rights in Myanmar, reads his statement at a news conference in Yangon International Airport February 19, 2014. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

An escalation in hostilities on the divided Korean peninsula have further closed off opportunities for dialogue with the isolated government of Kim Jong Un, the United Nations human rights investigator on North Korea said on Monday.

Tomas Ojea Quintana voiced concern that between 80,000 and 120,000 people are held in four known political prison camps in North Korea and said that hundreds of families in South Korean and Japan are still looking for missing relatives believed abducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

“Military tensions have brought human rights dialogue with the DPRK to a standstill,” Ojea Quintana told the U.N. Human Rights Council at the start of a debate on the country.

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