Robert King also told a Senate panel considering his nomination that if confirmed he would raise Japanese concerns about the welfare of citizens kidnapped by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.

King, a former staff director on the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, called North Korea "one of the worst abusers of human rights in the world." He said his job would be to make sure that human rights are part of U.S. policy as negotiators press North Korea to abandon its nuclear programs.

North Korea has long been accused of torture, public executions and other atrocities against its people. As many as 200,000 North Koreans are estimated to be living in political concentration camps.

The North has railed against any criticism of its rights record as a plot by the United States to seek the government's overthrow, and King said Pyongyang has already attacked his nomination as envoy.

Critics in the United States have worried that the human rights issue has been overshadowed by attempts to settle the nuclear standoff.

Republican Sen. John Barrasso raised criticism that the Obama administration had signaled a lack of interest in the human rights issue by taking eight months to appoint a special envoy for North Korea.

"I don't think the administration has turned a blind eye on North Korean human rights," King replied. The Obama administration, he said, must balance its security efforts with human rights concerns.

The special envoy position was created in 2005 by Congress to raise the human rights issue and to provide assistance to refugees fleeing the North.

Democratic Sen. John Kerry said that as negotiators pursue a nuclear settlement, "we have to stay mindful of the welfare of the North Korean people."

King said he would push for more radio broadcasts into North Korea, which he praised for allowing North Koreans to learn what is happening elsewhere in the world.

King also said that China has "been less hospitable than we would like" in accepting North Koreans fleeing across the countries' shared border. He said the Obama administration would continue to press China to treat the refugees better and to allow U.N. officials access to them.

King called the North's kidnapping of Japanese citizens "one of the most egregious human rights violations." The United States, he said, would support Japan's efforts to get information about those citizens and would raise the matter with North Korea.

North Korea admitted in 2002 that it kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens and sent five of them home. It said the rest were dead, but Japan has demanded proof and says more of its people may have been taken.

The United Nations recently urged North Korea to take immediate steps to reverse its abysmal rights record by providing food to more than 8 million hungry citizens, halting public executions, and ending the punishment of people who seek asylum abroad and are sent back.