South Korea’s main opposition party proposed a bill Monday calling for the promotion of civil and political rights in North Korea in addition to the right to life.

The proposal marks a shift from the previous stance of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, which has opposed legislation addressing human rights abuses in the North out of concern it could anger Pyongyang and worsen ties between the two Koreas.

“Until now, the opposition party has put the North Korean people’s right to life first, whereas the (ruling) Saenuri Party has only talked about political freedom (in the North), but this bill addresses both the right to life and civil liberties in a balanced manner,” NPAD Rep. Kim Sung-gon said in a phone interview with Yonhap News Agency.

The bill defines human rights in terms of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights established by the United Nations.

It assigns the South Korean government with a duty to make diplomatic efforts to promote North Koreans’ human rights and protect North Korean defectors outside their country.

It also calls on Seoul to hold talks with Pyongyang on ways to ensure the civil liberties of North Korean citizens, defectors, political prisoners, and others living in the communist nation.

A human rights data center proposed in the bill is designed to keep records of the human rights situation in North Korea, not to keep track of human rights violators in the North, Kim said.

The ruling party’s proposal for the human rights records archive centers on the possibility of demanding accountability for past human rights abuses in the event of inter-Korean reunification.

North Korea is accused of serious human rights abuses, such as holding hundreds of thousands of political prisoners in concentration camps, committing torture and carrying out public executions.

Pyongyang has flatly denied the accusations, calling them a U.S.-led attempt to topple its regime. (Yonhap)