Japan and the European Union will soon submit a new resolution to a U.N. human rights panel denouncing North Korea's human rights record, Japanese officials said Friday.
The two parties will jointly submit the resolution, the 10th of its kind, during a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council which will open Monday.
A U.N. diplomatic source said Japan and the EU will consider including the recent killing of the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Pyongyang is suspected of having been behind the incident.
They also plan to include a call for an early settlement of the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s, the source said.
The resolution adopted last year called for setting up an experts' group within the council to hold individuals in the North Korean regime responsible for rights abuses.