The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution condemning human rights violations by North Korea and called for efforts to address the issue. 

The resolution marks the 17th of its kind since 2005. 

The General Assembly held a meeting at UN headquarters in New York and passed the resolution by consensus without a vote. South Korea again did not co-sponsor the resolution, but joined in the consensus.

The resolution said the UN condemns in the strongest terms the long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights in and by North Korea. 

This year's resolution is almost the same as in previous years, but added calls for North Korea to cooperate with the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access(COVAX) Facility and relevant bodies to ensure the timely delivery and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. 

It also mentioned for the first time prisoners of war from the Korean War, expressing concern about allegations of continued violations of the human rights of unrepatriated prisoners of war and their descendants.