South Korea was elected to chair a U.N. human rights panel for a year, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Monday, boosting the expectation that it would play a more influential role in enhancing North Korea’s woeful human rights conditions. 

The election came as the member nations of the Human Rights Council supported South Korea by consensus, Seoul officials said. Ambassador Choi Kyong-lim, who heads the country’s permanent mission in Geneva, Switzerland, will serve as the council’s chair from Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2016.

“This is the first time for South Korea to lead an international organization handling human rights since the government’s establishment in 1948,” a senior Seoul official told reporters on the customary condition of anonymity.

“The election shows that the international community recognizes South Korea as a country that has achieved democratization and a big improvement in its human rights conditions. Korea has also served as the council’s member state three times since its inception in 2006.”

One member nation representing each regional group takes up the rotating chairmanship of the 47-member council. There are five groups: the South and Central American region, Africa, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. 

With the election this time, South Korea became the second chair from the Asia-Pacific group following Thailand’s chairmanship five years ago. 

The election came as Seoul, with the international community, has been stepping up its efforts to improve human rights conditions in the North. Earlier this year, South Korea opened a U.N. field office in its capital.

Seoul has also highlighted the human rights aspect of Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women as it is demanding Tokyo’s adequate apology and compensation for them. One Korean victim died last Saturday, leaving the number of survivors at 46.

The Seoul official said that South Korea will chair the council in an “objective and impartial” manner.

“The role of chairman is to lead council meetings objectively and impartially. He is not to reflect the views of the country of his origin. Of course, South Korea would have its own representative at the council, but the chairman is to take a role to facilitate the council procedures,” the official said.

Established in 2006, the Human Rights Council is one of the U.N.’s leading panels exploring solutions to and improving word human rights issues. It also leads the Universal Periodic Review, a four-year review of human rights evaluations of U.N. member states.

The panel, now under the U.N. General Assembly, replaced the Commission on Human Rights under the U.N. Economic and Social Council, as the U.N. elevated the human rights issue as part of its three priority issues including security and development.

Next year, South Korea takes the three-year membership for a fourth term. A country can apply for the membership for two consecutive terms. One year after serving for two straight terms, the country can apply for a third term.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)