Seoul returns to criticizing Pyongyang at the UN

Seoul has returned to co-sponsoring the annual UN resolution condemning North Korean human rights violations, according to the Foreign Ministry. “Finally, a resolution on human rights in North Korea…

A European Union representative to the UN speaks during the Third Committee meeting at the UN General Assembly's 77th session on Monday in New York. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Seoul has returned to co-sponsoring the annual UN resolution condemning North Korean human rights violations, according to the Foreign Ministry.

“Finally, a resolution on human rights in North Korea was proposed by the European Union at the Third Committee meeting of 77th session of the UN General Assembly held yesterday in New York,” Lim Soo-suk, the ministry’s spokesperson and deputy minister for public affairs, told the press on Tuesday.

“The Korean government actively participated in the discussions around the text of the North Korean human rights resolution and participated as a co-sponsor of the resolution.”

The Human Rights Council at the UN has annually adopted a resolution condemning Pyongyang’s human rights violation since 2003.

Seoul was a co-sponsor of the resolution from 2008 to 2018, but stopped in 2019 as the liberal Moon Jae-in administration tried to engage Pyongyang and not anger it.

The resolution, drafted by the European Union, has been proposed at the UN and is scheduled to be passed during the General Assembly session in December.

“We continue to reject unfair attempts to politicize the human rights [situations] on the UN stage and abuse them as political tools for interfering in the internal affairs of other countries,” said the North Korean representative during the Third Committee meeting of the UN General Assembly on Monday.

The text of the resolution this year is expected to be similar to previous resolutions, according to the Foreign Ministry in Seoul.

“It is still a draft, so there could be adjustments made until its expected adoption in December,” a ministry official told the Korea JoongAng Daily on Monday. “We are working closely with the members of the UN on the text.”

The resolution put forward last year by a number of European Union member states condemned “in the strongest terms the long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights in and by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea," referring to North Korea by its full name.

The resolution addressed “gross” human rights violations in the North including torture and other inhuman punishments, the existence of political prison camps, all forms of sexual and gender-based violence, abductions of North Koreans and people from other countries, severe restrictions on freedom of thought of North Koreans in online and offline spaces, as well as exploitation of workers sent abroad.

“The government's position is that the North Korean human rights issue is a universal human rights issue that requires a consistent response based on principles,” Lim said.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]