Japan and the European Union (EU) on Wednesday jointly submitted a new resolution to a UN human rights panel denouncing North Korea's human rights record.

    The move comes amid increasing concern about Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs following its fourth nuclear test in January and subsequent rocket launch widely viewed as a disguised ballistic missile test, according to Japan's (Kyodo) News Agency.

    The resolution, to be adopted by the March 24 end of the current session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, calls for setting up an experts' group to hold individuals in the North Korean regime responsible for rights abuses.

    It also recommends that the mandate of UN special rapporteur on the North Korean human rights situation be extended for another year. The post is currently filled by Marzuki Darusman, whose tenure ends in July.

    Furthermore, the resolution attached importance to settling the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. Japan and the European Union submitted a similar resolution last year calling for improvement in North Korea's rights situation to the UN panel, succeeding in having it adopted with majority support. 

    North Korea, for its part, has been hardening its stance against the international community's intensifying pressure over human rights in the isolated country. On March 1, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong blasted the UN Human Rights Council for increasingly politicizing the country's rights record, threatening to boycott sessions and defy resolutions. 

    North Korean representatives did not show up at Monday's council meeting on the country's human rights issue.

Source: QNA