ROK VIEWS ON UNHRC ELECTION--AGAINST BELARUS, FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SEOUL 001404 SIPDIS SIPDIS FOR U/S BURNS FROM AMBASSADOR VERSHBOW E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/10/2017 TAGS: PHUM PREL UNHRC KS SUBJECT: ROK VIEWS ON UNHRC ELECTION--AGAINST BELARUS, FOR SLOVENIA REF: A. STATE 63345 ¶B. SEOUL 1286 ¶C. 06 SEOUL 3962 Classified By: Amb. Alexander Vershbow. Reasons 1.4 (b/d) ¶1. (C) Nick: We enjoy good cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on UN Human Rights Council (HRC) issues and have been told that the ROK will oppose the Belarus bid for a seat on the HRC. MOFAT told us on two occasions on May 2 (Ref B) and again on May 10, that Seoul would not vote for Belarus due to its human rights violations, even if Belarus ran unopposed. We have confidence in this assessment. The ROKG clearly finds Belarus's human rights record abhorrent. Also, this is a relatively easy vote for the ROKG. Last October, even before we demarched MOFAT, the ROKG had decided to reject retaliatory anti-U.S. resolutions proposed by Belarus in the UN Third Committee (Ref C). We are also confident that Seoul will support the UNHRC candidacy of Slovenia, which has been confirmed to us on two occasions. ¶2. (C) As to whether the ROKG will support a Bosnian bid, initial signs are positive. On May 10, our MOFAT interlocutor said he was unaware that Bosnia had announced it was a candidate. However, in light of Bosnia's steadily improving human rights situation, he saw no reason why Seoul could not support Bosnia, unless a better fourth candidate emerged. He undertook to pass USG points on Bosnia (Ref A) to higher authorities. VERSHBOW