(LEAD) U.N. Security Council adopts N. Korea's human rights record as agenda item

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with details, background)

NEW YORK, Dec. 22 (Yonhap) -- The U.N. Security Council adopted North Korea's human rights record as an official agenda item for the first time on Monday, a highly symbolic move designed to increase pressure on Pyongyang to improve the treatment of its own people.

The issue was adopted in a 11-2 vote with two abstentions among the 15 council members.

It was the first time that the North's human rights situation has been adopted as an official item of the Security Council's agenda. It was also only the third time that the human rights situation of a country has been put on the council's agenda after that of Zimbabwe in 2005 and Myanmar in 2006.

After the vote, the council held discussions on the issue, but details were not immediately available.

Monday's session, where the North's human rights situation was a stand-alone agenda item, came days after the U.N. General Assembly formally adopted a landmark resolution calling for referring the North to the International Criminal Court for human rights violations.

The resolution was highly meaningful in that it was the first time that the U.N. General Assembly has called for the North's referral to the ICC, though chances of actual referral are slim because China and Russia are sure to veto such a move.

The North has protested strongly against the resolution, threatening a nuclear test in response.

Pyongyang 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 such criticism, calling it a U.S.-led attempt to topple its regime.

The North's human rights problem has drawn greater international attention this year after the U.N. Commission of Inquiry issued a report in February saying North Korean leaders are responsible for "widespread, systematic and gross" violations of human rights.

The report also said the ICC should handle North Korea's "crimes against humanity."
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