Seoul’s backing of UN resolution tests limits of inter-Korean dialogue

South Korea has thrown its weight behind a United Nations resolution condemning the North’s dire human rights record, a choice that could complicate Seoul’s push to reopen dialogue with Pyongyang, analysts have warned.

The decision to co-sponsor the annual UN resolution – despite expectations that President Lee Jae-myung’s liberal government might step back to create a friendlier atmosphere for engagement – is likely to trigger an angry reaction from Pyongyang and narrow the already limited space for diplomacy, according to experts.

“Pyongyang is likely to react angrily to this resolution again, and it will certainly have negative impacts on Seoul’s efforts to bring North Korea back to the table,” Yang Moo-jin, a political-science professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told This Week in Asia.

North Korea has consistently and strongly opposed annual UN resolutions addressing its human rights record.

In 2024, Pyongyang condemned the UN Human Rights Council’s adoption of a resolution denouncing its abuses as “nothing but a politically motivated fraud document”.