The United States has dropped a bid to hold a UN Security Council meeting on North Korea's human rights record after failing to garner enough support for the talks, diplomats said Friday.
The decision to scrap the meeting held every year since 2014 also comes as the United States is seeking a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea had written to council members last month to urge them to block the US request for the meeting that shines a spotlight on Pyongyang's dismal record.
The US has, every year since 2014, garnered the nine votes needed at the council to hold the meeting, despite opposition from China.
But diplomats said that only eight countries supported the US request this year, with non-permanent member Ivory Coast refusing to bow to pressure to lend its backing.
China, which has strong expanding ties in Africa, has argued that the Security Council is not the venue to discuss human rights as a threat to international peace and security. Beijing says it should be raised in the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. Every year, China has requested a procedural vote but failed to derail the meeting due to the nine "yes" votes secured by the United States.
"They don't have the numbers this year," a Security Council diplomat told AFP. "Cote d'Ivoire is not on board," he added, using the official name of Ivory Coast.
The meeting had been tentatively set for Monday. A US official however suggested the meeting could still take place at a later date, but not in December, when Ivory Coast holds the monthly rotating presidency of the Security Council.
"If we are unable to hold this important discussion this month, we hope to revisit holding this meeting in the new year," said the US official.
"We continue to believe that discussions on human rights -- and particularly concerning human rights abuses in North Korea -- are a crucial part of the maintenance of international peace and security and worthy of the UN Security Council's attention." (AFP)
