黑料社

GENEVA鈥擭orth Korea鈥檚 leaders should be brought before an international court for a litany of crimes against humanity, including mass murder, enslavement and starvation, a UN team said Monday.

A hard-hitting report detailed 鈥渆xtermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence鈥� in the nuclear-armed totalitarian state.

鈥淚n many instances, the violations of human rights found by the commission constitute crimes against humanity,鈥� said the Commission of Inquiry on North Korea report.

鈥淭he gravity, scale and nature of these violations revealed a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.鈥�

The 400-page report, which included shocking testimony from North Koreans who escaped, highlighted 鈥渢he inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.鈥�

The commission was created in March 2013 by the UN Human Rights Council. Its chair Michael Kirby said ignorance was no longer an excuse for a failure to act.

鈥淎t the end of the Second World War, so many people said, 鈥業f only we had known,鈥欌�� he told reporters.

鈥淣ow the international community does know,鈥� he said, adding, 鈥渢he suffering and the tears of the North Korean people demand action.鈥�

Kirby said talking to people who had escaped鈥攊ncluding an ex-prisoner whose duties including burning starvation victims and scattering their ash as fertilizer鈥攎ade the wartime analogy brutally clear.

鈥淚 can see many parallels between the story of North Korea and the story of the Axis powers in the Second World War,鈥� he said.

North Korea refused to cooperate with the commission, claiming its evidence was 鈥渇abricated鈥� by 鈥渉ostile鈥� forces.

Denied access to North Korea, the commission held hearings in South Korea and Japan with 320 North Korean exiles.

A frustrated Kirby wrote to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un鈥攖he third ruler of the communist dynasty founded by his grandfather in 1948鈥攐n Jan. 20 asking him to put his side.

Kirby told Kim that any North Korean official who 鈥渃ommits, orders, solicits or aids and abets crimes against humanity鈥� is responsible and must be held accountable.

Pressed by reporters, he did not accuse Kim directly, but said that 鈥渆verything comes together through the supreme leader,鈥� and that the total number of perpetrators could be in the hundreds.

China opposed

The United States welcomed the report, saying it 鈥渃learly and unequivocally documents the brutal reality鈥� of North Korea鈥檚 abuses, while Seoul said it hoped the findings would raise international awareness.

But Pyongyang鈥檚 key ally China strongly opposed any move to refer North Korea鈥檚 leadership to the ICC, saying it would 鈥渘ot help resolve the human rights situation.鈥�

Kirby said there was 鈥渘o doubt鈥� Chinese action was needed for a breakthrough, expressing the hope Beijing would see its abusive neighbor was 鈥渁 danger to itself and its region.鈥�

North Korea has long faced international sanctions over its atomic weapons program, but activists said justice for its rights record was long overdue.

鈥淏y focusing only on the nuclear threat in North Korea, the Security Council is overlooking the crimes of North Korean leaders who have overseen a brutal system of gulags, public executions, disappearances, and mass starvation,鈥� said Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch.

The report condemned a system of throwing generations of the same family into prison camps under guilt-by-association rules, given testimony from former guards, inmates and neighbors.

It estimated that there are 80,000-120,000 political prisoners in North Korea, a nation of 24 million people.

Hundreds of thousands of others were believed to have perished in the camps over the past half century, 鈥済radually eliminated through deliberate starvation, forced labor, executions, torture,鈥� the report said.

North Korean exiles in Geneva recounted the horrors they faced.

Kim Hyu Suk, born in 1962, said she was taken to a camp aged just 10 because her grandfather defected.

鈥淒uring the 28 years that I lived in the camp, I lost my grandmother, my mother, my siblings, my children,鈥� she told reporters.

Abductions 鈥榰nique鈥� in scale

North Koreans鈥� daily lives were marked by constant 鈥渟urveillance, coercion, fear and punishment to preclude the expression of any dissent,鈥� the report said.

It estimated 200,000 people from other countries had been abducted by North Korea or disappeared after going willingly.

Most were South Koreans stuck after the 1950-1953 Korean War ended, and ethnic Koreans who arrived from Japan after 1959.

Hundreds of South Koreans, Japanese and nationals of countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Lebanon, Romania and France have also been pressganged as language teachers or even spouses.

North Korean defectors have also been kidnapped from countries including China.

鈥淭hese international enforced disappearances are unique in their intensity, scale and nature,鈥� the report said.鈥�Jonathan Fowler

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