The government joined as a co-sponsoring country of the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on North Korean human rights. The North Korea human rights resolution, drafted by the European Union (EU) and Australia, is scheduled to be adopted at the 61st session of the U.N. Human Rights Council on the 30th (local time in Geneva).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the 28th that it joined as a co-sponsoring country of the North Korea human rights resolution through consultations among relevant government agencies, under the position of cooperating with the international community to bring about tangible improvements in the human rights of North Korean residents.
While pushing to resume dialogue with North Korea, the government had considered not joining as a co-sponsoring country of the North Korea human rights resolution, which North Korea opposes, to build trust between the two Koreas. However, it appears to have concluded that it is right to respond on principle, given that human rights are a universal value of humanity.
It is also observed that North Korea's hard-line hostile policy and rhetoric toward the South made it unlikely that the co-sponsorship issue of the North Korea human rights resolution would have any particular impact on North Korea.
Kim Jong-un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, also said in a recent policy speech at the Supreme People's Assembly that North Korea would "recognize South Korea as the most hostile state and deal with it thoroughly while rejecting and ignoring it with the clearest words and actions."
The United Nations adopts a North Korea human rights resolution at the Human Rights Council in the first half of every year and at the General Assembly in the second half. Korea participated as a co-sponsoring country of the resolution from 2008 to 2018, but did not take part from 2019 to 2021 under Moon Jae-in, considering, among other things, the impact on inter-Korean relations. The country returned as a co-sponsoring country in 2022 after Yoon Suk-yeol took office.