South Korea’s main opposition party leader on Wednesday reiterated support for a bill aiming to curb human rights violations in North Korea.

The comments by Rep. Moon Jae-in of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy appear to be an effort to attract centrist and right-leaning voters critical of the Kim Jong-un regime to his party before next year’s parliamentary elections, analysts said.

Voters generally consider the NPAD soft on Pyongyang’s human rights abuses, as the party’s agenda often includes plans to provide financial support to the North while excluding policies expected to pressure Pyongyang on its rights violations.

“Our party can no longer be seen to be careless about the North’s abuses,” Moon was reported as saying in a closed-door meeting with party officials on Wednesday.

Close to 20 versions of a potential North Korea human rights bill have been written by lawmakers in Seoul since 2005. But partisan disagreements over whether the bill would genuinely improve human rights standards in the North have stalled it.

As of this year, the governing Saenuri Party and the NPAD are at loggerheads over two versions.

The parties agree that a North Korea human rights bill should urge the communist state to meet standards set by the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But they disagree on details.

NPAD Rep. Shim Jae-kwon proposes creating a research center dedicated to “improving human rights standards” while Saenuri Rep. Kim Young-woo backs a center more focused on “documenting rights abuses.”

The Saenuri Party also advocates creating a North Korea human rights fund. The NPAD opposes the idea, saying it could be used to support controversial activists, such as those who sent anti-Kim Jong-un leaflets and U.S. dollar bills to the North late last year.

The activists had worsened inter-Korean relations by provoking Pyongyang authorities, the NPAD had said, and demanded they be stopped. The Park Geun-hye administration refused, saying the activists’ rights to freedom of expression outweighed the NPAD’s concerns.

The NPAD has consistently accused the Saenuri Party of provoking the North. The Saenuri version of the human rights bill continues that trend, the NPAD says.

But Saenuri Rep. Kim, the chief writer of his party’s human rights bill and who represents a constituency near the border with the North, has said “some degree of provocation” is inevitable. Adding, Pyongyang authorities were more likely to change their stance on human rights through external pressure.

North and South are still at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire agreement and not a peace treaty. Border skirmishes since then are not infrequent.

By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)