With a vote of 97 to 23 with 59 abstentions, the Committee condemned “continuing reports of systematic, widespread and grave violations of civil, political and economic, social and cultural rights in the Democratic People’s of Korea.” The tough resolution moreover cited, “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the imposition of the death penalty for political and religious reasons, and the existence of a large number of prison camps and the extensive use of forced labor.” The document called for the DPRK to allow a human rights reporter into the country (as even the Burmese military has allowed) as to personally assess the situation.

The United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, the Europeans and many developing states co-sponsored and supported this admittedly non-binding resolution while countries like communist China, Cuba, Iran and Russia, opposed it among others.

South Korea’s government chose again to abstain. In 2006, after a few years of non-participation or abstentions, South Korea supported this draft resolution. Still no amount of Seoul-searching can rationalize this turnaround on human rights which affects twenty million of their fellow countrymen. While the South Korean government has consistently pursued a path of reconciliation with Pyongyang, called Sunshine diplomacy, and small concessions have been gained through this costly détente, the fact remains that the core issue of human rights has been callously swept under the rug of President Roh Moo-hyun’s Blue House in favor of currying favor with Kim Jong-il’s rogue regime.

The Foreign Ministry in Seoul (reportedly uncomfortable with the choice) said the UN abstention was based on its “unique position” with the North. A presidential spokesman said the decision was made by Roh, ironically a former leftwing human rights lawyer, and “based on the improving ties” with North Korea.

If we believe human rights to be universal, then speaking up for democracy be it in Burma, Cuba, Pakistan, why this glaring omission of North Korea? What about the horrendous human rights balance sheet for fellow Koreans living across the 38th parallel dividing the peninsula?

Coddling Pyongyang’s neo-Stalinist dictatorship remains a recipe not for intra-Korean detente but for disaster and future shame.

“The decision to abstain is truly a duplicitous move for a country that produced the U.N. secretary general,” said Park Sang-hak, a former refugee from North Korea and now an activist based in Seoul told the Reuters news agency.

Seoul’s respected Korea Times added editorially, The government deserves criticism, as the current decision will likely lead the country to lose credibility in the international community due to its double standards on the issue. The nation was chosen as a founding member of the U.N. Human Rights Council in May last year. Had we backed the U.N. resolution there would surely have been some loss in inter-Korean relations. But such damage is not as serious as failing to clarify our stance regarding human rights on the global stage.”

Given that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was a former South Korean Foreign Minister, there’s an extra gravitas to focus the concern of the international community to affect positive human rights concessions in North Korea.

This remains the core of the issue. While there has been a slow but sure détente between Seoul and Pyongyang, lubricated by the largesse of the South Korean taxpayers and business community, the clear and consistent human and civil rights violations in the communist North of the Korean peninsula need to be addressed.

The resolution “strongly urges the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to respect fully all human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

It would seem only logical that South Korea’s democratic government should be among the first to applaud and embrace these global human rights concerns for their fellow Korean countrymen. But sadly, Seoul’s lame-duck Roh Administration has reached a new political low by making this feckless abstention.