Already under fire over US accusations of staging a cyberattack, North Korea on Monday is expected to face a torrent of criticism during the first-ever UN Security Council meeting on Pyongyang’s dismal rights record.
North Korean envoys at the United Nations are not planning to attend the unprecedented meeting convening at 2000 GMT at the request of 10 of the council’s 15 members.
China, Pyongyang’s closest ally, is expected to try to block the meeting from going ahead, but its objections would be overruled by the strong majority of members who argue that North Korea’s rights records raises security concerns, diplomats said.
Overshadowing the talks will be US accusations that North Korea was behind a cyberattack on Sony Pictures that exposed embarrassing emails and scuttled the release of “The Interview,” a movie about a fictional plot to kill leader Kim Jong-Un.
The United States has vowed to retaliate for the hack attack and could raise the allegations at the Security Council meeting.
Diplomats, however, said attention should stay focused on rights violations in the reclusive communist state.
The cyberattack is “obviously relevant to the wider DPRK (North Korea) context, but we are keen that this should be a focus on human rights,” said British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant.
The UN General Assembly put the international spotlight on North Korea when it adopted a landmark resolution last week calling on the Security Council to consider referring Pyongyang to the International Criminal Court.
– Calls for ICC referral –
Approved by a resounding majority, the resolution drew heavily from a UN inquiry report released in February that detailed a vast network of prison camps holding up to 120,000 people, along with cases of torture, summary executions and rape.
The inquiry concluded that North Korea was committing human rights violations “without parallel in the contemporary world,” and that these were ordered by the highest level of the state.
No decision will be taken on Monday on the call to refer North Korea to the ICC for crimes against humanity, but the meeting will mark an important shift for the top UN body.
Until now, the top UN body has focused on North Korea’s nuclear program as a security threat, and has imposed sanctions on Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic tests.
China and Russia, which voted against the resolution, argued that North Korea’s rights situation should be discussed at the UN Human Rights Council, and not the Security Council.
Two top UN officials for political affairs and human rights will brief the council.
Under UN procedures, North Korea can attend the council meeting and voice its views, but it has decided to stay away.
“We cannot recognize the Security Council meeting. Its mandate is not human rights,” said political counselor Kim Song from the North Korean mission at the United Nations.
“We will not attend,” he told AFP.
While no concrete outcome is expected from the meeting, human rights groups say the fact that it is being held at all is a watershed.
Human Rights Watch called the meeting a “game-changer.”
“It marks the first time human rights in North Korea will be formally discussed at the Security Council,” said HRW analyst Param-Preet Singh.
“It reflects the international community’s overwhelming appetite to see the devastating crimes catalogued by the commission of inquiry addressed.”