North Korea has halted talks with the main sponsor of a UN resolution urging the country’s referral to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, following months of attempts to win over key supporters of the draft.
In a statement dated Oct. 30 and given to UN states, North Korea’s UN mission said it had suspended talks with the EU on the resolution.
A UN inquiry said in a Feb. 17 report that North Korean security leaders and possibly even Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un himself should face international justice for ordering systematic torture, starvation and killings.
“Although we are not opposed to the dialogue and cooperation for promotion and protection of genuine human rights, we will strongly respond to any attempt to continuously abuse the human rights issues in sabotaging our system, to the last ditch,” North Korea’s UN mission said in its statement, which was obtained by reporters on Monday.
As of Oct. 31, it suspended “overall consultations” with the EU on the resolution, which has about 50 cosponsors, and warned that those supporting the move would “have to take full responsibilities for all the consequences.”
The resolution drafted by the EU and Japan, which does not single Kim out by name, is likely to be adopted by a UN General Assembly committee that deals with human rights as early as next week.
It will be put to a vote for approval by the General Assembly next month, where it is expected to pass. The measure would then go to the 15-member Security Council, where diplomats say China, North Korea’s main benefactor, would likely veto it.
Despite the expected veto, normally shy North Korean diplomats have sought to sway their UN counterparts with their own lengthy human rights report and a proposal for language in the resolution that would praise Pyongyang’s record.
North Korean diplomats also recently met with UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea, Marzuki Darusman, for the first time and signaled that they could allow him to visit Pyongyang if language about the criminal court was removed from the draft.
They also told UN member states that they would consider receiving “technical assistance” from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and have human rights dialogue with the EU, according to the statement to UN states.
“We’re not prepared to make those sorts of deals,” a senior UN diplomat said.
North Korean officials also made recent visits to Europe and Africa, trips seen as seeking diplomatic support for Pyongyang’s efforts over the resolution.
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