North Korea said Monday it has formally ratified a U.N. protocol on the protection of children, claiming it is committed to international cooperation in the human rights field.

The move came as the communist nation braces for a U.N. vote on a strongly worded resolution against its human rights record.

The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, the North's top legislative body, issued a decree last week ratifying the 2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The protocol calls for the prohibition of trafficking of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

Pyongyang's ratification of the protocol is a "demonstration of the government's policy of attaching importance to the children and a manifestation of its will to fulfill its commitment and promote international cooperation in the field of human rights," said the KCNA.

In its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session in May, the U.N. Human Rights Committee called on North Korea to adopt the protocol. 

In September, Pyongyang's Ambassador to the U.N. Ja Song-nam signed it. The North acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990.

In New York, meanwhile, the U.N.'s Third Committee is working on a draft resolution, co-sponsored by the European Union and Japan, which calls on the U.N. to recommend the referral of North Korea to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.

The North's Kim Jong-un regime is apparently lobbying hard to remove the ICC referral part from the resolution.

Pyongyang released two detained Americans -- Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller -- on the weekend, which was viewed as another charm offensive toward Washington. (Yonhap)