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South Korea to back UN resolution on North Korea
South Korea will vote in favor of a UN resolution criticising North Korea's human rights record, a senior official said on Wednesday, a move that could anger the communist country amid an international deadlock in nuclear talks.
- AP
- Published: 12:02 March 26, 2008
Seoul: South Korea will vote in favor of a UN resolution criticising North Korea's human rights record, a senior official said on Wednesday, a move that could anger the communist country amid an international deadlock in nuclear talks.
The South "will vote for the resolution" at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the senior official, from the Foreign Ministry, told AP.
He asked not to be named because he did not want to comment publicly before the vote takes place later this week.
The decision by the administration of conservative President Lee Myung-bak, who took office last month, also marks a change from policies during the previous decade of liberal governments, which were reluctant to publicly criticize the North.
Lee has promised a tougher stance in dealing with South Korea's isolated, impoverished neighbor.
Since 2003, South Korea has only once voted for a UN resolution on the North's human rights - after its nuclear test in October 2006. In other votes, the South either abstained or stayed away out of concern its criticism might hurt ties and efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff with the North.
International advocacy groups say North Korea is among the world's worst abusers of human rights. Among other things, the North has been accused of running a network of prison camps believed to house some 200,000 political detainees.
"I believe the North Korean people should get to a point where they can enjoy the minimum basic happiness of human beings," Lee said in a meeting with Unification Ministry officials, according to South Korean pool reports.
He did not directly mention the UN vote.
Pyongyang rejects criticism of its rights record, denouncing it as part of a US attempt to overthrow the regime, which has yet to satisfy Washington's demands for a full accounting of its nuclear programs.
The country will likely react angrily to Seoul's latest move.
Besides expressing concern about the rights situation, the resolution also calls for a one-year extension of the mandate of Vitit Muntarbhorn, the UN special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, according to the ministry official.
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