UN passes N. Korean human rights resolution for 16th consecutive year

Published : Dec 17, 2020 - 09:19 Updated : Dec 17, 2020 - 09:19

UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir speaking in a General Assembly meeting in New York on Tuesday. (Captured image from the website of the United Nations)

WASHINGTON -- The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution calling for improvements to human rights conditions in North Korea.

The resolution marks the 16th of its kind since 2005.

The UN again condemned "in the strongest terms, the systematic, widespread and gross violations" of human rights by North Korean authorities.It also expressed "very serious concern" about what it called "persistent reports of torture and sexual and gender-based violence."

The resolution's passage came nearly a month after the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly passed the resolution with unanimous consent.

South Korea decided not to co-sponsor the resolution for a second consecutive year amid its efforts to resume inter-Korean dialogue.

The chief of the North's diplomatic mission to the UN had strongly denounced the passage of the resolution by the UN committee on Nov. 18, calling it a "cooked-up political slander."

Kim Song had also warned the adoption of the resolution by the UN General Assembly would "constitute a hostile policy aimed at overthrowing our system." (Yonhap)