SKorea to back UN resolution condemning NKorea rights record

Seoul - South Korea has said it would vote for a United Nations resolution condemning North Korea's human rights abuses after abstaining last year.

The UN General Assembly is expected to vote on its second resolution on the communist state's much-criticised rights record before the end of this week.

In November last year it expressed serious concern in a vote which followed three resolutions by the UN Human Rights Committee since 2003.

South Korea abstained from voting on all four resolutions, despite repeated calls from human rights groups to be more vocal.

"The government decided to approve the resolution," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"The government hopes its decision will provide an opportunity for North Korea and the international community to promote dialogue and cooperation on human rights, which are keenly needed following the nuclear test."

South Korea's government has come under growing pressure to take a tougher stance since the North conducted missile tests in July and a nuclear test last month.

Conservative groups have described its "sunshine" engagement policy with its neighbour as appeasement.

"In making our judgement, we are considering various elements such as North Korea's nuclear test and its missile problem," Foreign Minister-designate Song Min-Soon said during a confirmation hearing in parliament before the announcement.

A draft UN resolution, submitted by Japan and the European Union, condemns North Korea for "systemic, widespread and grave" human rights violations, including the abduction of foreigners.

It asks the UN secretary general to submit a comprehensive report on the situation. Ban Ki-Moon, South Korea's former foreign minister, is set to take office as the UN chief in January.

The Japanese-EU draft says abuses include "torture, public executions, extrajudicial and arbitrary detention, the absence of due process and the rule of law, the imposition of the death penalty for political reasons, the existence of a large number of prison camps and the extensive use of forced labor."

It decries "all-pervasive and severe restrictions on freedoms of thought, conscience, religion and expression" and "continuing violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women."

The draft also takes Pyongyang to task over "continuing reports of violations of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities," including use of collective camps and coercive measures.

In a report last month Vitit Muntarbhorn, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, accused authorities of practicing "merciless discrimination against handicapped persons by setting up collective camps for them where they are designated according to their physical deformity or disability."

His report also charged that women were being subjected to violence as well as human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

An experts' report late last month said the human plight in the reclusive nation deserved to be treated on a parallel track with its security threat.

The report, commissioned by former Czech president Vaclav Havel, ex-Norwegian prime minister Kjell Bondevik and US Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, accused the North of "crimes against humanity" against its own people.

It said the North imprisons more than 200,000 people in camps and it is estimated that more than 400,000 have died in that system over 30 years. -- The Associated Press

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