SEOUL: South Korea will co-sponsor an annual United Nations resolution on North Korean human rights, its foreign ministry said late on Saturday (Mar 28), despite some expectations Seoul might refrain from backing it to improve ties with Pyongyang.
North Korea has long been accused by the United Nations and other critics of widespread rights abuses, including running prison camps and severely restricting freedom of expression and access to information, while little is known about its criminal justice system.
Despite repeated overtures by South Korea’s dovish President Lee Jae Myung, North Korea has recently and formally labelled Seoul its “most hostile entity” and warned it would respond “mercilessly” to any perceived provocations.
Seoul has decided to “take part as a co-sponsor of the North Korean human rights resolution”, the foreign ministry said in a statement sent to AFP.
The decision was “based on the stance of cooperating with the international community to bring about substantive improvements in the human rights of the North Korean people, and following consultations among relevant government agencies”, it added.
The announcement came days after – and despite – comments by Seoul’s unification minister Chung Dong-young, who suggested Seoul should withhold support for the resolution as Pyongyang sees it as a fundamentally hostile policy.
The nuclear-armed North has long criticised the UN resolution, and under the liberal administration of former president Moon Jae-in, Seoul withheld support between 2019 and 2022 in a bid to improve inter-Korean ties.
South Korea resumed co-sponsorship in 2023 under hawkish ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol.
North Korea has consistently rejected allegations of abuses, accusing the UN of politicising human rights to undermine the regime.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in 2025 that the overall human rights situation in North Korea over the past decade had shown no improvement and in many cases had worsened.
The EU- and Australia-drafted resolution is expected to be adopted at a regular UN Human Rights Council session later this month, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
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