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On the visit through Feb. 22, Turner will meet with government
officials, activists and North Korean defectors, the department
said in a news release on its website on Friday.
"Special Envoy Turner's trip will underscore the U.S. commitment
to promoting human rights in North Korea, increasing access to
uncensored information within the closed country, and empowering
survivor voices advocating for concrete change," the release
said.
Turner assumed the post in July last year, after it had been
vacant since 2017, with the United States focusing more on
bringing North Korea to the negotiating table over its nuclear
programme during the period the posting was unfilled.
President Joe Biden, however, had vowed on taking office that
human rights would be at the centre of his foreign policy.
Pyongyang denounced Turner - a Korean speaker and former
director of the State Department's Office of East Asia and the
Pacific in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor - as
"wicked" and "mudslinging" after she was appointed.
(Reporting by Kevin Buckland in Tokyo; Editing by William
Mallard and Tom Hogue)
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