UNHRC RESOLUTION ON N. KOREA HUMAN RIGHT

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The UN Human Rights Council is expected to adopt today a resolution condemning human rights violations by North Korea. The South Korean government is likely not to co-sponsor the resolution but jut to endorse its adoption, as it did last year. Here is more.

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The UN Human Rights Council strongly denounces North Korea's extensive human rights violations in its upcoming resolution. It also urges the UN Security Council to refer the North Korean cases to the International Criminal Court. Currently, 43 countries have added their names to the list of co-sponsoring the resolution. South Korea has not co-sponsored the resolution since 2019. Instead, it has chosen to endorse the resolution upon adoption. It was a compromise to not provoke Pyongyang. But the situation is different this year, as the U.S. has again put its name on the list of the co-sponsors after a three-year absence, mounting an offensive against human rights conditions in the North. This surely places a burden on the South Korean government.

[Soundbite] Antony Blinken(U.S. Secretary of State (on Feb. 25))

During his visit to Seoul last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned North Korea for committing extensive human rights violations.

[Soundbite] Park Won-gon(Prof., Ewha Womans' Univ.) : "What the Biden administration wants is to bring allies together and hold China in check through promoting the value of human rights. It is natural for the U.S. to raise the issue of North Korean human rights violations."

Seoul still can add its name to the list of the co-sponsors before the resolution is passed. However, it is expected to support the resolution upon its adoption, as it did for the last two years. In its human rights practice report to be released this month, the U.S. State Department plans to detail North Korea's human rights violations in 23 categories, including torture and operation of concentration camps.