Anchor: The United Nations General Assembly has passed another resolution calling for efforts to improve human rights conditions in North Korea. In response to the adoption of such a resolution for the 18th consecutive year, a North Korean diplomat at the UN meeting argued that the move was politically motivated.
Kim Bum-soo has more.

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

In a General Assembly meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, the resolution was passed by consensus without a vote, making it the 18th of its kind since 2005 and the first to be co-sponsored by South Korea in four years.

The resolution, tabled by the European Union, focuses on concerns over dire human rights conditions in the North. 

While expressing concerns over what was referred to as the illegal detention, torture and execution of foreign nationals, this year's resolution added calls for North Korea to release all information pertaining to foreign nationals subjected to human rights violations by the regime.

South Korea has been exerting efforts to obtain details related to the shooting death of a South Korean fisheries official by North Korean soldiers near the western maritime border in 2020.

A North Korean envoy to the UN at the session argued that his government rejects the UN resolution, claiming that it is politically motivated.

[Sound bite: DPRK Permanent Representative to the UN Kim Song]
"The draft resolution, which is a product of a hostile policy of the United States and its followers against North Korea, has nothing to do with the promotion and protection of human rights... The so-called human rights violations mentioned in the draft resolution cannot exist in our country, where a people-first principle is fully embodied in all spheres of social life."

The resolution also urged the UN Security Council to consider referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.