A/HRC/34/66 help [women escapees] locate their children in China or advocate for reunion”.44 This is a very serious issue, which warrants urgent attention. IV. The way forward 28. The Special Rapporteur continues to pursue the two-track strategy advocated by his predecessor, with a focus on engagement with the authorities to promote human rights compliance. Furthermore, addressing human rights violations, particularly allegations of crimes against humanity, requires that perpetrators be held accountable. These two tracks are mutually reinforcing, and a dual approach is necessary to produce tangible and sustainable improvement in the situation of human rights. 29. The Special Rapporteur acknowledges that pursuing this approach is a significant challenge. The successive adoption of sanctions by the Security Council has led to increased isolation of the country. Similarly, the push for accountability, including the call to refer the country to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, has been met by a confrontational stance by the authorities of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 30. Nevertheless, the Special Rapporteur believes that there is a space for implementing the dual approach. In this section, he briefly reviews his own efforts to date and those of key actors who are working to improve the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. A. Efforts to engage by the Special Rapporteur 31. Since his appointment on 1 August 2016, the Special Rapporteur has exchanged correspondence with the Permanent Missions of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in Geneva and New York, inviting them to start a conversation on the human rights situation in the country. The Special Rapporteur submitted an official request to the Permanent Mission in Geneva to conduct a country visit as part of preparations for his field trip to North-East Asia in November 2016. Unfortunately, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea did not grant the request, citing the country’s long-standing position against the country mandate, which it perceives as politically motivated. The Special Rapporteur responded by recalling his mandate as an independent expert and urging the Government to consider a possible visit as an opening for better engagement with United Nations human rights mechanisms to promote and protect the rights of all in the country. Notably, in November 2016, on the margins of the Third Committee meetings during the General Assembly, a representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea reportedly stated that the Special Rapporteur could visit the country in his personal capacity as a law professor, but not in his official capacity as Special Rapporteur. 45 The Special Rapporteur is ready to continue the conversation on ways to facilitate a country visit in his official capacity. In the past, the Government has cited as one of the reasons for rejecting cooperation with the mandate that the Special Rapporteur’s reports “decry the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea system and policies, based on distorted information” (see A/HRC/13/13, para. 49). The Special Rapporteur, as a new mandate holder, stresses that the 44 45 12 OHCHR, Torn Apart: The Human Rights Dimension of the Involuntary Separation of Korean Families (Geneva, 2016), para. 73. Press briefing by the Ambassador of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the United Nations, Kim In Ryong, 15 November 2016, available from http://webtv.un.org/media/watch/kim-inryong-dprk-press-conference-15-november-2016/5211267770001.