S Korea co-sponsors UN resolution on Pyongyang rights after 5-yr hiatus

South Korea has co-sponsored a UN draft resolution on North Korea's human rights violations for the first time in five years, a diplomatic source said on Thursday.

According to the source, Seoul participated as a co-sponsor in the draft resolution to be adopted at the 52nd regular session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which runs from February 27 to April 4, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The draft resolution, led by Sweden and the European Union, urged the North to ensure freedom of speech both online and offline, allow the establishment of independent media and reconsider its law on blocking cultural content from outside the reclusive country.

In 2020, North Korea adopted a new law on "rejecting the reactionary ideology and culture" that bans people from distributing or watching media originating from South Korea, the US and other countries.

Submitted to the Council on Tuesday, the draft resolution also called on Pyongyang to disclose all relevant information, including the whereabouts, of foreigners detained or kidnapped in the North to the families of the victims.

It appears to reflect the Seoul government's demand for the North to clarify the death of a South Korean fisheries official who was fatally shot by the North's coast guard near the Yellow Sea border between the two Koreas in 2020, observers said.

The UNHRC has adopted a resolution condemning North Korea's human rights abuses every year since 2003.

South Korea, however, did not co-sponsor such a UN resolution from 2019 to 2022 under the Moon Jae-in administration that apparently sought to avoid tensions with the North and resume inter-Korean dialogue.

In late 2022, however, it co-sponsored a UN General Assembly resolution on North Korea's human rights for the first time in four years, following the launch of the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol administration in May.

--IANS

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