The South Korean government has joined the E.U. and Japan in sponsoring a UN resolution on North Korean human rights for the first time.
According to a 4th November Ministry of Foreign Affair and Trade statement, “The South Korean government has co-sponsored the UN resolution led by the EU, based on the principle that human rights are a comprehensive value of all human beings which should be treated separately from all other issues.”
A resolution on North Korean human rights has been brought to the U.N. General Assembly every year since 2005 by the E.U., Japan, the U.S. and approximately 50 other countries. The draft of the resolution will be distributed at the U.N. headquarters and passed in mid-November.
An affiliate of MOFAT said that this draft includes the latest information appended to the basic contents of last year’s resolution.
“It includes the significance of Inter-Korean Talks, concerns over systematic human rights abuses and the urgency of halting them, the need for cooperation with the U.N. Special Rapporteur’s activities, permission for humanitarian apparatus, and urges the resolution of the abduction issue
The Roh Moo Hyun administration absented itself from the vote for the resolution in 2003 and abstained from voting in 2004 and 2005. However, in 2006, right after North Korea conducted a nuclear test, it voted for the resolution, but last year abstained again.
