U.N. committee approves resolution on N. Korean human rights improvement

NEW YORK, Nov. 21 (Yonhap) -- A United Nations committee Friday approved a resolution calling for improvement in human rights in North Korea.
The resolution, initiated by South Korea, the European Union, Japan and 48 other
countries, was approved 95-24, with 62 abstentions.
The resolution is the first of its kind initiated by South Korea, which had been
reluctant to endorse or initiate any resolution on North Korea's human rights
records for fear of provoking the isolated communist neighbor with which Seoul is
seeking eventual reunification.
The former liberal South Korean government of Roh Moo-hyun zigzagged on the
sensitive issue. It abstained on a vote for a similar resolution in 2005, voted
for it in 2006 -- soon after North Korea's detonation of its first nuclear device
-- then stepped back to abstain last year.
The conservative Lee Myung-bak government, which was launched in February this
year, has said it will take issue with North Korea's human rights record and
pledged not to pursue inter-Korean cooperation projects unless Pyongyang abandons
its nuclear arsenal.
The resolution calls for North Korea to cooperate closely with a U.N. rapporteur
on North Korea's human rights, allow access to the North by international
humanitarian organizations and resolve issues related to the alleged kidnapping
of foreigners.
It also touched on the importance of inter-Korean dialogue and expressed concerns
over alleged human right violations in the North.
The resolution, however, dropped language supporting the joint declaration made
at the end of an inter-Korean summit on Oct. 4 last year.
The U.N. General Assembly will likely endorse the resolution at a vote next month.
Pak Duk-hoon, deputy chief of North Korea's permanent mission to the United
Nations in New York, said before the voting, "We strongly oppose the resolution
as it is a product of a political ploy to forcibly change North Korea's regime
and ideology."
Pak called on other nations to join forces with it to reject "any attempt by the
United States and other Western states to politicize the human rights issue."
The North Korean diplomat denounced South Korea for manipulating to drop the
clause on support for the Oct. 4 joint declaration in this year's resolution,
while categorizing the South's vote as an act against unification.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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