Officials from the UK government met with North Korean counterparts and discussed concerns over the country’s human rights record on three occasions in early 2015, parliamentary transcripts from Thursday showed.

Lord Alton of Liverpool asked the Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Baroness Anelay of St John’s, whether or not the government had raised the issue recently with the DPRK and the contents of those discussions.

In her reply, Anelay said the UK government remains “deeply concerned” and detailed three instances of contact in 2015, when human rights issues were discussed.

“In January, representatives of EU embassies in Pyongyang, including the UK, met the DPRK Foreign Minister to discuss a range of issues including human rights,” Anelay said.

Anelay added that FCO officials met North Korean Embassy officials in February to discuss freedom of expression, the March UN Human Rights Council session, which foreign minister Ri Su Yong attended, and the plans for an EU resolution on human rights in the DPRK.

“More recently, at a meeting in March with the DPRK Ambassador to the UK, we underlined the strength of British Government and public interest in this issue,” Anelay said.

Although human rights topics were discussed during these exchanges, the meetings may not have been specifically scheduled for this purpose. However the FCO said the topic is of ongoing concern.

“We have longstanding concerns over the human rights situation in the DPRK. Since the establishment of UK-DPRK diplomatic relations in December 2000, we have used critical engagement to raise UK concerns over the DPRK’s failure to adhere to international norms, primarily through regular meetings between UK and DPRK officials,” an Foreign Office spokesperson told NK News on Friday.

While there were not many further details provided on the discussions, Anelay said the response from the DPRK was not positive.

“The DPRK expressed disappointment over the UK and EU’s work to raise our concerns in international fora and challenged international assessments of its domestic human rights situation.”

North Korea has been under intense pressure over its human rights record following the publication of a 372-page UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report in February 2014.

The report detailed abuses that it said, in some cases, amounted to crimes against humanity.

The report’s recommendations included that North Korean officials, perhaps including leader Kim Jong Un, should be tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for those violations. North Korea has rejected the report and human rights criticism in general.

“The UK strongly supported the establishment of the COI, which helped shine a spotlight on shocking human rights violations in the DPRK,” the FCO spokesperson told NK News.

“This has enriched the debate on the human rights situation within the DPRK and provided a further basis upon which to take forward discussion with the DPRK.”

Alton, who is also the chair of All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea (APPGNK), asked multiple questions of Anelay during the session, including on the reported purge of former defense minister Hyong Yong Chol, the proposed UN field office in Seoul and the current UN World Food Programme (WFP) funding shortfall.