November 29, 2023
News

North Korea says Seoul backing UN human rights bill to distract from crowd crush

UN passes resolution condemning DPRK human rights violations as South Korea co-sponsors for first time in four years

South Korea cosponsored an annual U.N. resolution condemning human rights violations in North Korea for the first time in years on Wednesday, a move Pyongyang dismissed as an attempt to distract from the deadly crowd crush in Seoul late last month.

The United Nations Third Committee passed the “Situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” resolution for the 18th straight year, calling on the DPRK to take immediate steps to improve the human rights situation in the country. Seoul declined to sign off on the resolution from 2018-21 under President Moon Jae-in, who worried that criticism of human rights conditions in the DPRK would impede inter-Korean diplomacy.