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Humanitarian and Cultural Committee of the UN General Assembly’s website.

By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent

North Korea is expressing strong opposition to the efforts by the European Union (EU) to pass a human rights resolution that would recommend that the UN Security Council bring North Korean officials guilty of human rights abuses before an international judicial body.

On Oct. 9, the North Korean mission to the UN told member states that it was planning to submit a separate resolution about its human rights issues to the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, sources say.

“North Korea apparently sent a letter to the countries that share its position informing them that it was going to submit a resolution related to its human rights issues,” a source in the UN said on condition of anonymity. North Korea could draft a resolution on its own or prepare a draft along with other countries that sympathize with it.

When asked what the North Korean resolution would say, the diplomatic source in the UN said it could deny that there are any human rights issues in the country, or it could criticize the resolution drafted by the EU as being politically motivated and biased against a specific country.

“It is common in the UN for a resolution to be promoted and then abandoned, so we will have to wait and see what happens,” the source added.

If North Korea ends up submitting its own resolution, there will be two resolutions about human rights in North Korea up for discussion at the Third Committee, which will probably spark a sharp conflict between the two sides.

Last year, a resolution urging North Korea to address human rights issues was passed with the consensus of member states. This year, however, the outcome is likely to be different.

For one, the resolution is expected to contain the contentious idea of referring North Koreans guilty of human rights abuses to an international judicial body. For another, North Korea is moving aggressively to resist the resolution.

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