By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter

The United Nations has adopted a resolution denouncing North Korea for its violations of human rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Friday.

The decision was made by the General Assembly's human rights committee by a vote of 97-19 with 65 abstentions.

South Korea cast a vote for the condemnation.

North Korea's deputy U.N. Ambassador Pak Tok-hun reportedly blasted the action, calling it a political attack by its enemies.

``The draft resolution is nothing but a document of political conspiracy of the hostile forces which deny and obliterate the state and social system of the DPRK,'' he told the committee.

The DPRK is the official name of North Korea ― the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

``The conservative Lee Myung-bak administration has stuck to the stance that human rights, as a universal value, should be dealt with separately,'' the foreign ministry said. ``So, the government agreed to propose the resolution with other countries this year as well as last year and cast a vote for it.''

The resolution states that members have ``very serious concerns at the persistence of continuing reports of systemic, widespread, and grave violations of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights'' in North Korea.

It said that torture, public executions, forced labor and other inhuman punishment are rampant in the isolated state.

The international organization also pointed out that the North Korean regime keeps refusing to cooperate with U.N. special agents monitoring the human rights situation there.

It urged the secretive state to immediately stop systematic, organized and prevalent human rights violations and completely implement obligations under U.N. conventions.

The EU and Japan led the motion with support from 53 member countries including South Korea.

The resolution, passed in the third committee of the United Nations in New York, Thursday, now awaits the final approval at the Assembly's plenary session scheduled for next month.

The resolution is not legally binding but is considered to lay the foundations for 192 U.N. member countries to take consistent action against human rights violations.

The international organization has adopted a resolution every year expressing concern at the human rights situation in the North since 2005.

ksy@koreatimes.co.kr