South Korea on Tuesday stressed the need for parliamentary approval of a bill aimed at improving North Korea's dismal human rights conditions in response to the North's condemnations.
The bill is still pending in a parliamentary committee, a move that underscored challenges in passing the bill through the National Assembly.
Similar bills on North Korea's human rights were scrapped in South Korea in recent years, as liberal lawmakers have shied away from the issue of the North's human rights out of concern that it could strain inter-Korean relations.
The bill calls for efforts to improve the North's human rights situation and set up a center tasked with investigating the North's human rights situation and relevant archives.
The Unification Ministry stressed the need for parliamentary passage of the bill, saying that the protection of human rights is a universal value of mankind.
"The law is needed for the improvement of inter-Korean ties and the future of the two Koreas over the long haul," said a ministry official, asking not to be named.
Earlier in the day, North Korea condemned South Korea for making efforts to approve the bill, calling on Seoul to focus on its own human rights violations.
"South Korea is sticking to a farce over North Korea's human rights in a bid to justify its confrontational scheme and create a favorable atmosphere (for its conservatives) ahead of the April parliamentary election," said Uriminzokkiri, the North's main propaganda website.
Pyongyang has long been labeled one of the worst human rights violators in the world. The communist regime does not tolerate dissent, holds hundreds of thousands of people in political prison camps and keeps tight control over outside information.
In December, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution for the second consecutive year that calls for referring the North to the International Criminal Court for human rights violations. (Yonhap)