NEW YORK -- From Dec. 10-16, Japan observed "Korea Human Rights Week," a new occasion stipulated by the June 2006 North Korean Human Rights Act. The act, which built on Japan's cosponsorship of the 2005 United Nations General Assembly resolution, is supposed to increase public awareness of, and prevent, a variety of human rights abuses in North Korea, including torture, abuse of repatriated refugees, constraints on freedom of thought, expression and religion, and trafficking of women in China.