United Nations 1, South Korea 0

The UN General Assembly seems to have its head on straight today. The General Assembly voted on a resolution introduced by the EU. It was similar to the resolutions that have been voted on in the Human Rights Commission every year for the last three years and successfully passed. Today they passed the resolution before the entire assembly. i can only say that i am more than a little excited about this.

The assembly's social and humanitarian committee backed the EU-sponsored document in a 84-22 vote, with 62 abstentions - among them South Korea

I was impressed by how the difference in votes seemed more significant than i remember the votes in the UNHRC. And i don't just mean there were more of them; i mean the gap was proportionally larger (though there were a alarming number of abstentions)

Speaking of abstentions, sticking to form, South Korea abstained from the vote, as noted above. I wasn't surprised but i was still dissapointed by this. I thought that perhaps the GNP pressure would have perhaps done something to change this, but alas.

Its representative Shin Kak-soo said Seoul "shares the serious concerns of the international community regarding the human rights situation" in North Korea.

"At the same time, my government has other crucial objectives in our policy towards the DPRK (North Korea) which in our view are vital for peace and security in the Korean peninsular," Shin Kak-soo said.

Here is more coverage. and here as well.

on a positive note, the GNP has become more and more vocal about this issue in the Korean Assembly and has straight up called out the Uri party on this issue. this may be a political move, but on this one i am willing to be more utilitarian.