Seoul keeps backing UN resolution against N. Korean human rights violations

Korea has maintained its support for a U.N. resolution condemning North Korea's human rights violations, a document showed Wednesday, despite its push for rapprochement with Pyongyang under the liberal government of President Lee Jae Myung.

South Korea was among the 41 U.N. member states co-sponsoring the resolution, according to the resolution distributed earlier this month, continuing its stance from the previous conservative government that had taken a hard-line approach toward the reclusive state.

Earlier expectations were that the Lee government, launched in June, might pull back from U.N.-led efforts criticizing North Korea's human rights abuses, as it has put its top priority on easing tensions and resuming dialogue with Pyongyang.

South Korea did not support the past U.N. resolutions from 2019-22, when then liberal President Moon Jae-in was in office, breaking with a decade of co-sponsorship.

This came amid a strong push by the Moon government to engage with North Korea, which culminated in a flurry of diplomacy, including the first summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018.

Seoul's renewed backing of the resolution indicates the Lee government has positioned itself to approach the North's human rights issues as a matter of universal value and principle.

"Our government believes it is important to make tangible improvements to the human rights of North Korean people, and we have co-sponsored the resolution based on this stance," a foreign ministry official said.

The United States was not among the sponsoring countries, having withdrawn from the U.N. Human Rights Council on Trump's instructions.

While the Lee government has made repeated overtures to Pyongyang, it remains steadfast on the principle of North Korea's denuclearization.

The latest U.N. resolution on North Korea's human rights will be introduced at the U.N. Third Committee before being brought to the General Assembly plenary next month for final adoption.

The resolution condemns "in the strongest terms" the longstanding, systematic and gross violations of human rights in and by North Korea, including those that may amount to crimes against humanity.

North Korea has bristled at past resolutions, calling them a "politically motivated provocation" encroaching upon its sovereignty.

Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Son-gyong speaks during the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters, Sept. 29, in New York City. AFP-Yonhap