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| A North Korean flag flies on a mast at the Permanent Mission of North Korea in Geneva in this undated file photo. Reuters-Yonhap |
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Tuesday adopted a resolution on North Korea's gross rights violations.
The resolution, co-sponsored by South Korea and adopted at the 52nd regular session of the UNHRC, urged the North to ensure freedom of speech both online and offline, allow the establishment of independent media, and reconsider its law on blocking cultural content from outside the reclusive country.
In 2020, North Korea adopted a new law on "rejecting the reactionary ideology and culture" that bans people from distributing or watching media originating from South Korea, the United States and other countries.
The latest resolution also called on Pyongyang to disclose all relevant information, including the whereabouts, of foreigners detained or kidnapped in the North to the families of the victims.
It appears to reflect the Seoul government's demand for the North to clarify the death of a South Korean fisheries official who was fatally shot by the North's coast guard near the Yellow Sea border between the two Koreas in 2020.
The UNHRC has adopted a resolution condemning North Korea's human rights abuses every year since 2003.
South Korea, however, did not co-sponsor such a U.N. resolution from 2019 to 2022 under the previous Moon Jae-in administration that apparently sought to avoid tensions with the North and resume inter-Korean dialogue. (Yonhap)
