By Yi Whan-woo
Rival parties have agreed to vote on a much-touted bill aimed at addressing the dire human rights situation in North Korea at a plenary session scheduled for 2 p.m., Friday.
The agreement came at a meeting between floor leaders, vice floor leaders and chief policymakers of the ruling Saenuri Party and main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) at the National Assembly, Saturday.
If passed, South Korea will begin stronger efforts in working with the international community in improving human rights in the reclusive country.
The bill calls for the establishment of a foundation to better look into North Korea’s human rights records and develop preventive measures while setting up an archive to preserve written testimonies and other resources on related issues.
It also calls for the establishment of an advisory committee on Pyongyang’s human rights under the wing of the Ministry of Unification, which handles inter-Korean affairs.
The committee will be comprised of 10 members ― the Saenuri Party and MPK will each recommend five candidates as committee members.
The lawmakers have faced growing calls to join international efforts in pressing North Korea for its state-perpetrated human rights violations, including starvation and torture at secretive concentration camps, public execution as well as forced labor.
Since 2005, the U.N. General Assembly adopted resolutions that denounce Pyongyang’s crimes against humanity.
In both 2014 and 2015, it especially approved bills that asked the U.N. Security Council to refer the North Korean leadership to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Netherlands.
The U.S. and Japan also adopted legislation on North Korea’s human rights situation in 2004 and 2006, respectively.
In South Korea, the ruling party lawmakers, either individually or in groups, filed a proposal against Pyongyang’s human rights abuses in 2005, 2008 and 2012.
Concerned about provoking the repressive regime, the opposition, however, had opposed such a plan until recently.
Meanwhile, the rival parties agreed to maintain the 300 parliamentary seats for the 20th National Assembly elections scheduled on April 13 amid concerns over staggering efforts in redrawing the election constituencies.
They said it will increase the number of electoral constituencies to 253, up from 246, while decreasing the number of National Assembly seats for the proportional representatives from 54 to 47.
It is unclear, however, when the parties will be able to vote on the bill because the MPK is against the Saenuri Party’s plan to link the electoral map bill to other pending bills on the economy and labor reform.