UN Human Rights Resolution: South Korea Absent for 3 Years... US Returns

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] The United Nations has adopted a North Korea human rights resolution condemning human rights violations and crimes against humanity in North Korea for the 19th consecutive year, while South Korea has been absent from the list of co-sponsors for three consecutive years. On the other hand, the United States, under the Biden administration which emphasizes human rights, rejoined the list of co-sponsors after three years, highlighting the stark difference in perspectives on North Korean human rights between the two countries.

The UN Human Rights Council, composed of 47 member states, held its 46th session at the UN Geneva office on the 23rd (local time) and adopted the North Korea human rights resolution by consensus without a vote. Since the resolution was first adopted by the predecessor Human Rights Commission in 2003, it has been adopted for 19 consecutive years including this year.

However, South Korea was absent from the list of co-sponsors for this resolution. South Korea had been a co-sponsor for 11 consecutive years from 2008 to 2018 but has not been listed as a co-sponsor for three consecutive years from 2019 to this year. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated, "We maintain the existing position of not participating as a co-sponsor but only joining the consensus." As a government promoting the Korean Peninsula peace process, it appears concerned about the negative impact on inter-Korean relations, but the government avoided giving a specific answer, saying, "We decided our position after comprehensively considering various situations."

In contrast, the United States returned as a co-sponsor of the North Korea human rights resolution after three years. The Trump administration withdrew from the Human Rights Council in June 2018, but the Biden administration, which took office afterward, showed a completely different stance by returning to the Human Rights Council last month and urging the council’s support for the North Korea human rights resolution.

Experts point out that the difference in attitudes between the two countries reveals the gap in perspectives on North Korean human rights, as seen in the failure to include North Korean human rights issues in the joint statement during the recent South Korea-US foreign and defense ministers (2+2) meeting. Professor Kim Hyun-wook of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy said, "The Biden administration is responding more firmly to human rights issues than the previous government, such as sanctioning individuals involved in human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang, increasing the likelihood of future sanctions on North Korean human rights," adding, "If that happens, future North Korea-US talks as well as the gap in perspectives on North Korean human rights between South Korea and the US could become more worrisome."

North Korea has expressed discomfort with the UN’s human rights criticisms. On the 21st, through a post on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, it criticized, "Recently, Western countries, the main culprits of global human rights disturbances and disasters, presumptuously raised issues about the ‘human rights’ situations of individual countries including us under the banner of ‘human rights advocacy’ at the UN human rights stage," and on the same day, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs raised their voice in a report by the Korean Central News Agency, saying, "The European Union’s ‘human rights sanctions’ play is an impure political provocation aimed at interfering in our internal affairs."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.