South Korea is likely to raise the issue of North Korea's serious violation of human rights at the United Nations later this month, diplomatic sources said Tuesday, amid growing international condemnation of the North's dismal situation.

The third Committee of the U.N. General Assembly is scheduled to be held on Oct. 28 in New York, where North Korea's human rights situation will be discussed, the sources said.

The European Union and Japan are driving efforts to slam North Korea's human right conditions as they have written a draft resolution that calls for the Security Council to refer Pyongyang's human rights issue to an international criminal justice mechanism.

The sources said that Seoul is likely to co-sponsor the resolution by calling on Pyongyang to improve its human rights conditions, but the level of its condemnation may be eased ahead of expected high-level inter-Korean talks.

"It is not decided how (strongly) Seoul will make remarks at the U.N. meeting," a government official said.

North Korea's high-ranking officials made a surprise visit to Seoul on Oct. 4, raising hopes for improved relations between the rival Koreas.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Monday that Seoul's door will remain open for dialogue with Pyongyang despite last week's exchange of fire between the two sides across the tense border.

North Korea's human rights situations have been under the spotlight since the U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI) made public a report on the North's human rights conditions in February after a yearlong probe.

The report accused Pyongyang of making "systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights." It added that North Korean leaders' crimes against humanity should be dealt with by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

But an official at Seoul's foreign ministry said that it would be difficult to bring North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the ICC due to procedural reasons.

As North Korea is not a member to the ICC, the international court is permitted to deal with the North's issue only when the Security Council refers the case to the ICC or prosecutors decide to investigate it on their own authority.

Even if the resolution is passed at the General Assembly, it is likely to hit a snag at a meeting of the 15-member Security Council, given that China and Russia with veto powers have opposed passing country-specific resolutions, according to the official.

The EU-led resolution is likely to be dealt with at the U.N. plenary session slated for late November. Resolutions on North Korea's human rights have been adopted at the General Assembly every year since 2005, but they have not been approved at the Security Council. (Yonhap)