NEW YORK -- South Korea should co-sponsor an annual resolution condemning North Korea for its human rights abuses and urging the regime to improve the situation, Seoul's new ambassador to the United Nations said.

Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook made the remark in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Sunday, stressing that North Korean human rights is a "very important issue in terms of safeguarding universal values."

"For the past few years, we have been clearly passive in addressing the resolution on North Korean human rights ... this has to return to normal," he said.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution condemning North Korea's human rights abuses for the 20th consecutive year since 2003.

South Korea, however, has not participated as a co-sponsor of the resolution since 2019 amid its efforts to avoid tensions with the North and resume inter-Korean dialogue under the previous liberal government.

Hwang will likely seek to co-sponsor the resolution as early as next year since he assumed his post as the first ambassador to the UN under the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol administration in July. (Yonhap)