Passage of a proposed U.N. resolution that calls for referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court will serve as a great boon for efforts to improve Pyongyang's human rights record, the head of a South Korean presidential advisory panel said Thursday.

   Hyun Kyung-dae, executive vice chairperson of the National Unification Advisory Council, made the remark during a forum on Korean unification in Washington, stressing that improvement in the North's human rights situation is a precondition for unification.

   "Should the resolution on North Korean human rights pass the U.N. General Assembly this time, significantly reflecting the COI recommendations, I believe it will be a drastic primer for improving human rights in North Korea," Hyun said.

   Hyun was referring to the recommendations that the U.N. Commission of Inquiry made in a February report on Pyongyang's human rights record after a year-long investigation.

One of the recommendations was to refer North Korea to the ICC for human rights abuses.

   North Korea has been scrambling to tone down the European Union-proposed resolution, offering to invite the special U.N. human rights investigator to visit the country in exchange for the envisioned resolution dropping any mention of referring the issue to the ICC.

   They have also stepped up public relations activities, including providing a rare briefing on the country's human rights situation for U.N. diplomats, attending a private seminar to make the country's case and speaking more frequently to reporters.

   Hyun said that the previous South Korean governments had taken a "half-hearted" attitude about the North's human rights problem out of concerns that actively seeking a solution to the issue would strain relations with Pyongyang.

   But such an attitude has changed "fundamentally" under the government of President Park Geun-hye, Hyun said, pointing out that Park openly mentioned the issue and called for help from the international community for efforts to improve the situation during her speech at the U.N. General Assembly in September.

   Hyun also said that restoring human rights for the North Korean people would lead to the installation of a democratic government in the communist nation, which he said would ultimately lead to the opening of a path to unification.

   "For two Koreas to usher in an era of democracy, human rights, and prosperity together, improvement of human rights in North Korea is an essential condition that surely needs to be fulfilled," he said. "In addition, I think unification is the ultimate solution to the North Korean nuclear and human rights issues."

   North Korea has long been labeled as one of the worst human rights violators in the world. The communist regime does not tolerate dissent, holds hundreds of thousands of people in political prison camps and keeps tight control over outside information.

   But the North has bristled at any talk of its human rights record, calling it a U.S. plot to topple its regime.

   A range of security and foreign policy experts from South Korea and the U.S. attended Thursday's forum, including Bruce Klingner, a senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation; David Maxwell, associate director of the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University; and Lee Sang-hyun, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute.

   Lee stressed the importance of securing support from neighboring and other nations in realizing unification. He said the South should try to convince neighboring and other nations that Korean unification is not a security threat to the region and will rather bring great security and economic benefits to the region and beyond.

   "Unification is also a means with which all problems resulting from the division can be resolved at a stroke. It should be convinced again that unification is the best solution for fundamental resolution of all North Korean issues," including the nuclear standoff, he said.

   Klingner said the U.S. and the South should not downplay threats from North Korea. He rejected widespread assessments that the North is several years away from developing a nuclear-tipped missile, and said he believes Pyongyang has already mastered the technology to make a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a missile.

   He also praised Park's "Korean Peninsula trust process" as a "realistic blueprint" for engaging North Korea while protecting South Korea. He said that Seoul should remain resolute in its requirements of conditionality, reciprocity, and transparency from Pyongyang without relaxing sanctions on the regime.

   "The United States and South Korea should have no illusions about Kim Jong-un," he said. "The North Korean threat -- always high -- has gotten worse under the young leader. He is just as dangerous as his father and less predictable."

   Jun Bong-geun, a professor at the Korean National Diplomatic Academy, outlined a series of benefits that neighboring countries can get from Korean unification, and called for further strengthening the alliance with the U.S.

   "The United States is the only country supporting South Korea-led unification in an open and positiver manner prior to unification and also the only state that can help South Korea win cooperation from the neighboring countries in the unification process," he said.  (Yonhap)