A/HRC/34/66 reiterating her offer to provide technical advice in the course of implementation of the treaty. The ratification of the Convention brought the number of core human rights treaties ratified by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to five. 19. The Special Rapporteur also welcomes the integration of the human rights-based approach in the United Nations strategic framework 2017-2021, setting out agreed priorities of the United Nations agencies operating in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and co-signed with the Government. 30 The Special Rapporteur further welcomes the work, referred to in the strategic framework, by the United Nations country team to support the implementation of the recommendations accepted during the 2014 universal periodic review and the country’s obligations under international human rights treaties. The Special Rapporteur is ready to work closely with the United Nations country team together with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to follow up on the implementations of the recommendations accepted during the universal periodic review and other human rights treaty obligations. III. Issues of particular concern 20. During his first visit to the Republic of Korea and Japan, in November 2016, the Special Rapporteur met with individuals who had recently left the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and who provided first-hand descriptions of their experiences in the country.31 The Special Rapporteur also received information concerning the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from various non-governmental organizations, government agencies and the field-based structure of OHCHR-Seoul. The Special Rapporteur thanks OHCHR for preparing and supporting the mission. This section highlights some of the human rights issues raised during the visit. Political prison camps 21. The Special Rapporteur received information about the human rights situation in political prison camps. Although the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has denied the existence of these facilities, large-scale prison camps where people accused of serious crimes of a political nature are detained have been extensively documented by the commission of inquiry (see A/HRC/25/63, paras. 59-61) and other sources. At least four camps reportedly remain in operation (political prison camps Nos. 14, 15, 16 and 25) and another camp (No. 18) is possibly still operational. 32 Families are not informed of the whereabouts or fate of relatives who are sent to these prisons. The lack of information about the situation of individuals imprisoned in political prison camps, whose number is estimated to be between 80,000 and 120,000 (ibid., para. 61), means that their detention in many cases may amount to an enforced disappearance under international law.33 The Government has stated in the past that “‘political prison camps’ did not exist and 30 31 32 33 8 See http://kp.one.un.org/content/unct/dprk/en/home/news/UNSF-launch2017.html. During his mission, the Special Rapporteur was informed that persons who leave the Democratic People’s of Republic of Korea and arrive in the Republic of Korea are held in Government-run facilities for a period of time. Korea Institute for National Unification, White Paper 2016, p. 400; Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, List of officers, detainees and missing persons in political prison camps in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Seoul, 2016, p. 11; Bermudez, North Korea: Camp No. 25. The Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance states that “enforced disappearances” occur when “persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government, or by organized groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect,