US scraps UN meet on N.korea human rights

UNITED NATIONS: 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 on 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.

Every year, China had 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 OFICIAL name of Ivory Coast.

The meeting had been tentatively set for Monday.