A U.N. committee has adopted a resolution urging North Korea to improve its human rights conditions.

The U.N.’s Third Committee, which deals with issues related to human rights, approved a resolution Thursday on human rights violations in the reclusive state by a vote of 96-19, with 65 abstentions.

The resolution expressed serious concerns over the North’s human rights situation, including high numbers of both prison and public executions. It urged the North to immediately halt such violations.

The resolution also called on U.N. member states to respect the U.N. principle of banning the forced repatriation of North Korean escapees.

Ahead of the committee’s vote on the resolution, the North’s mission to the world body said in a statement that Pyongyang sternly rejects the resolution, calling it the product of a political plot aimed at forcibly changing the North’s communist regime and ideas.

Presented by Japan and the European Union, the resolution is expected to be adopted at the U.N. General Assembly next month. South Korea joined 53 countries in cosponsoring the resolution.

The U.N. General Assembly has adopted resolutions on North Korea’s human rights situation every year since 2005.