South Korea and the United States are moving to put North Korea's dismal human rights conditions on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council within this year in a bid to continue U.N. discussions on the issue and turn up the heat on Pyongyang, government sources said Tuesday.
North Korea's human rights situation has been in the spotlight as a U.N. General Assembly committee last month passed a resolution calling for the referral of the country's human rights violations to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The move came after a U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI) published a report in February that accused Pyongyang of "systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights." The COI recommended that the Security Council refer Pyongyang's "crimes against humanity" to the ICC.
Sources said that Seoul and like-mined countries agree on putting the issue on the agenda for the Security Council as early as possible in a bid to keep pressure on Pyongyang.
"Putting the issue on the table can help keep alive momentum for global attention to the North's human rights violations," an official said, asking not to be named.
Seoul's move comes as an expected change in the composition of the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council could hamper efforts to put Pyongyang's human rights issue on the table next year.
The veto wielded by the five permanent members doesn't apply to the selection of agenda items so that nine votes out of 15 are sufficient to raise the issue.
Half of the 10 non-permanent members including South Korea will see their two-year terms finish at the end of this year, according to the U.N website. All five non-permanent members voted for the U.N. resolution.
Only two out of the next five would-be non-permanent members -- Spain and New Zealand -- voted for the General Assembly resolution on the human rights issue. Malaysia and Angola abstained while Venezuela opposed it.
The outlook for actual approval at the Security Council is not bright as China and Russia, permanent members of the body, are opposed to passing country-specific resolutions. The referral of North Korea to the ICC is only possible with the endorsement of the Security Council. (Yonhap)