A United Nations resolution calling for the referral of North Korea's dismal human rights situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) may easily pass through a U.N. panel later this week, a Seoul official said Monday.

The U.N. Third Committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday (New York time) on a European Union-authored resolution, which for the first time calls for the referral of North Korea's human rights violations to the ICC.

"It is highly likely that it will be passed by an overwhelming (margin)," the foreign ministry official said in a background briefing, asking anonymity.

If the resolution passes through the Third Committee, which deals with social and human rights issues, it will be put to a vote in a plenary U.N. assembly next month.

The U.N. has annually adopted a resolution condemning North Korea's human rights violations since 2005 and the resolutions endorsed in 2012 and 2013 were adopted in consensus, the official said in support of his prediction for the forthcoming vote. 

This year's U.N. move on the North Korean human rights condition carries added significance as the pending resolution includes calls to bring formal human rights violation charges against the communist country. 

This year's resolution also newly confirmed North Korea's crimes against humanity after a U.N.-backed commission of inquiry formally documented what it calls "systematic, widespread and grave" human rights violations in the North, including a vast network of prison camps. 

Referring to Cuba's efforts to counter the passing of the EU-authored resolution, the official said the country may not succeed, given wide support for the resolution among U.N. member countries.

Reportedly after consultations with North Korea, Cuba, which is in close relations with Pyongyang, hastily submitted another resolution to the committee, requiring the removal of the call for the ICC referral from the EU-submitted version. The international community should instead seek to resolve the North Korean human rights issue through talks and more fact-finding, the Cuban resolution said.

If Cuba's resolution is adopted, it will replace the EU-authored strongly worded version.

"Few members would vote for the Cuban proposal to remove (the ICC referral call)," said the official, adding, "The possibility (that the Cuban resolution gets passed) is less than 10 percent."

African countries may be allergic to the EU version because some of them have previously been referred to the ICC, the official said. 

"But they would likely abstain rather than vote down because it is a issue belonging to North Korea, the most serious human rights violator, not an African issue," the official noted.

The resolution, even if it is successfully passed, has no binding power, but it will help press the U.N. Security Council to take concrete measures on North Korea's human rights violations, including the push to refer the issue to the ICC, he said, also pledging South Korea's efforts to join and support the international push. (Yonhap)