Havana, November 13 (RHC) –- Cuba defended North Korea on Wednesday at the United Nations in The Hague regarding the sanctions the UN levied on Pyongyang for alleged human rights abuses.

A draft of a resolution prepared by Europe and Japan was presented to the General Assembly of the UN and recommends that North Korea be sent to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, including systematic torture, the presence of famines, and executions. The resolution was submitted to a vote tentatively scheduled for November 18th.

North Korea has lobbied other nations to oppose the resolution.

Cuba, who together with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, belongs to the block of 120 non-aligned states, presented a draft amendment calling for the deletion of two paragraphs in the Japan-EU draft and proposes a replacement.

The two paragraphs acknowledge "reasonable grounds" to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed in the country, suggest an action by the UN Security Council to refer North Korea's human rights situation to the ICC and to consider slapping targeted sanctions on "those who appear to be most responsible" for what may constitute crimes against humanity.

The Cuba-proposed replacement paragraph notes "a new cooperative approach for the consideration of the human rights" in North Korea to enable a visit by the UN special investigator to the country as well as dialogues between North Korea and other countries on the issue.

Cuba believes that taking up a country-specific resolution could set a new precedent if it wound up in the Hague court and some developing countries may find it threatening.

"This precedent fabricates a dangerous trigger mechanism for future punishment to developing countries, manipulating the human rights international cooperation," the proposal said in an explanation of why the amendment was required.