Seoul Yet to Decide on UN North Korea Rights Vote

President Roh Moo-hyun held a rare summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in October and pledged massive aid.

South Korea has yet to decide whether to back a U.N. resolution criticising North Korea's human rights record, with media reporting friction between the outgoing president and the Foreign Ministry on the looming vote.

South Korea voted last year for a U.N. General Assembly resolution that condemned human rights abuses in the communist state after abstaining from voting in previous years in the face of criticism that its liberal government was soft on the North.

"The final draft has been circulated and we are considering it," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong said, declining to comment on whether there was a chance that Seoul might abstain.

The vote is expected later on Tuesday in New York.

South Korean media said the presidential Blue House was considering abstaining this year to avoid upsetting Pyongyang as ties have improved between the rival states.

President Roh Moo-hyun, who has three months left in office, held a rare summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in October and pledged massive aid to help rebuild the impoverished state.

North Korea responds harshly to any criticism of its internal affairs, and Seoul in the past took pains to avoid upsetting its touchy neighbour.

North Korea continues to engage in "extrajudicial killings and is responsible for disappearances and arbitrary detention", a U.S. special envoy on human rights in the North said last week.

"Prisoners in North Korea face life-threatening conditions, torture, forced abortions and infanticide. There is a complete denial of fair trial, freedom of speech or emigration," Christian Whiton said in Hong Kong.