South turns hawkish as UN council condemns North

This photo taken on Feb. 27 shows the 52nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council taking place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

South Korea's recent international engagement regarding North Korea suggests Seoul may be returning to a hawkish stance toward Pyongyang.

The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva adopted a resolution Tuesday condemning human rights violations by the North Korean regime.

South Korea co-sponsored the resolution, ending a multi-year hiatus that began during the previous liberal administration, which favored improving relations with the North.

The latest resolution, drafted by Sweden on behalf of the European Union, was adopted without a vote at the council's 52nd regular session, meaning that it was adopted by consensus.

The resolution kept to its usual language, condemning “in the strongest terms" North Korea's "long-standing and ongoing systemic, widespread and gross human rights violations."

A noticeable change in the resolution was how it specifically addressed a North Korean law against "reactionary thought and culture," calling attention to the regime’s efforts to keep its citizens in the dark in both in the online and offline spaces.

The resolution urged the North Korean government to take immediate steps to end crimes, abuses and violations of “rights of freedom of opinion, expression and association, both online and offline,” by allowing independent newspapers and media to operate in the country, and to review its laws “including the Law on Rejecting Reactionary Thought and Culture.”

“It's the first time ever that a UN resolution condemning human rights violations in North Korea mentioned a specific law in the country,” said a diplomatic insider in speaking with the JoongAng Ilbo recently.

Through the so-called "Law on Rejecting Reactionary Thought and Culture" enacted in 2020, the North Korean regime has banned citizens from bringing in, viewing or distributing “reactionary ideology and culture,” including TV shows and movies from South Korea, with violators subject to harsh penalties, including death.

UN resolutions on North Korean human rights have been passed consistently by the international body every year since 2003.

South Korea was co-sponsor of the resolution from 2008 to 2018 but stopped in 2019 as the liberal Moon Jae-in administration focused on engaging with Pyongyang.

North Korea balked at the resolution’s passage on Tuesday.

“It is a document that is full of lies and contains a political conspiracy that has nothing to do with promoting human rights,” said Han Tae-song, North Korean ambassador to the UN Office in Geneva. “It was created with the sole purpose of undermining the prestige of my country and realizing the unrealistic dream of overthrowing our society.”

He added that the draftee countries were “making the Human Rights Council a stage for interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign countries.”

Efforts to address North Korean issues will continue in Seoul this week as the nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan meet in Seoul to discuss the North Korean nuclear threat.

Kim Gunn, South Korea's nuclear negotiator, will meet with American nuclear envoy Sung Kim and Japanese nuclear envoy Takehiro Funakoshi on Friday, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The envoys will hold bilateral meetings on Thursday.

They will discuss the “grave situation on the Korean Peninsula following North Korea's recent series of provocations” and discuss countermeasures, said Lim Soo-suk, a ministry spokesperson in a press briefing on Tuesday.

North Korea has engaged in a string of provocative actions in recent years, firing over 90 missiles in 2022 alone, and passing a law last September announcing its readiness to launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes against any country that poses an imminent threat to North Korea and its leadership.

BY PARK HYUN-JU, ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]