Los crímenes contra la Humanidad en Corea del Norte demandan respuesta

North Korea’s crimes against humanity demand action

By Editorial Board, Published: April 15

THE UNITED Nations Security Council will hold an informal meeting this week about the findings and recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea, one of the most significant and startling investigations into human depravation of recent times. Now that the commission has admirably shed light on the abuses, the Security Council must not be complacent and should consider referring the matter to the International Criminal Court on grounds of suspected crimes against humanity.

Michael Kirby, the former justice of the High Court of Australia who led the inquiry, prepared the report with maximum clarity. The commission found “that crimes against humanity have been committed” in North Korea based on policies set “at the highest levels of the state.” The report said the crimes were: “extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.”


With this, the world is on notice. The findings were based on testimony and other information the panel collected, even though it was never permitted to enter North Korea. When the U.N. Human Rights Council voted 30 to 6 on March 28 to support referral to the “appropriate international criminal justice mechanism,” and hold the perpetrators of abuse to account, the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, So Se-pyong, was insultingly dismissive. “Mind your own business,” he said. “No person on Earth would be so stupid as to keep the door open to a gangster who is attacking with a sword.” On the contrary, it is everyone’s business.

China, neighbor and benefactor to North Korea, was singled out in the commission report for carrying out forced repatriation of refugees fleeing the North. China has its own miserable human rights record, and the calls to conscience clearly have not been heard in Beijing. China voted against the resolution in the Human Rights Council and would probably veto any action by the Security Council. We have no illusions about China, but perhaps the Security Council could make a useful point by bringing the matter to a formal vote. If China casts a veto, it would show the world once more who protects the architects of this despicable behavior.

Mr. Kirby, who was in Washington this week, said he had considered alternative means to bring those responsible to justice, such as a truth and reconciliation commission, as in South Africa; some kind of joint national-international tribunal, as in Cambodia; or an ad hoc investigation, such as with Rwanda. But they could all pose long, drawn-out problems or obstacles. The most direct and efficient way to bring North Korea’s leaders to account for crushing their own people, Mr. Kirby said, is the International Criminal Court. If that’s not possible, then some other mechanism must be found. The facts demand action.

Chief UN investigator of North Korean human rights abuses discusses the allegations of crimes against humanity.
Talk to Al Jazeera Last updated: 26 Apr 2014 07:39


The rumours or widespread human rights abuses in North Korea have been just that - rumours - until now.

A United Nations inquiry has just concluded that the range and scope of abuse of North Korea's 25 million citizens is beyond what many imagined.

The regime is accused of committing crimes against humanity including the extermination, starvation and enslavement of its population.

The UN-mandated inquiry team says the country's leadership should be hauled before at the International Criminal Court.

Among the reported abuses, the inquiry found that pregnant women are starved, while their babies are fed rats and snakes; more than 100,000 people are in gulags; there is systematic torture; everyone is forced to inform on each other; entire communities are denied adequate food; and the bodies of the dead are burned and then used for fertiliser.

The commission of inquiry says all abuses have been sanctioned and enforced by the government of Kim Jong-un.

The commission's chairman, retired Australian Justice Michael Kirby, says he is not exaggerating when he compares the situation in North Korea with the Holocaust.

Kirby charges that the leaders of the state, including the supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, should answer evidence that they preside over such crimes against their people.

Naturally, the North Korean government rejects the commission's work, but Kirby is not backing down.

So what is next for North Korea and its citizens? Are these substantiated allegations? And should the North Korean leaders be tried at the International Criminal Court?

We explore all this as Michael Kirby, the UN investigator of North Korean human rights crimes, talks to Al Jazeera.

The Gulags of North Korea

BY Victor Cha, Lindsay Lloyd
JUNE 10, 2014 - 02:58 PM


When North Korea makes the headlines, you can be almost certain that it won't be for good reasons. With depressing regularity, we hear stories about military provocations against South Korea and the North's ongoing efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Or we hear about trivialities like the opening of an amusement park or the disgraceful antics of a former basketball star. But an issue of far greater importance than the trivial stories, and of equal importance to the security questions, gets only scant coverage: North Korea's atrocious record on human rights.

In February, an unprecedented United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) released a report that exhaustively documents the scope of North Korea's repression. In uncharacteristically blunt language drawing in part on hours of testimony from North Korean refugees and defectors, the COI laid out the systemic and unparalleled horrors of human rights abuses in the country. It concluded that North Korea's government was committing crimes against humanity against its own people and called on the nations of the world to act.

Foremost among these crimes is the continuing existence of political prison camps that share many attributes of the Nazi concentration camps or the Soviet gulags. While hard numbers understandably vary widely, most experts agree that between 100,000 and 200,000 North Koreans are currently held in a network of vast camps, some of which are the size of small cities. Maintained separately from the prisons for ordinary crimes, North Korea's gulags subject prisoners to appalling conditions. Torture and public executions are commonplace. Prisoners lack adequate food, clothing, healthcare, and housing. And under North Korea's ruthless system, three generations of families are punished for the so-called offenses of a single person.

Kang Chol-hwan, author of Aquariums of Pyongyang, who was sent to the camps as a nine-year-old boy, recalled, "Every aspect of life there is the worst you can imagine as a human being." When his grandfather was arrested for alleged political crimes, Kang was sent to the gulag along with his grandmother, father, uncle, and sister. He was assigned to forced labor brigades, like other children in the camps.

Long denied by the Kim regime and often overlooked by the rest of the world, these camps have been exposed by the testimonies of an increasing number of refugees, as well as satellite imagery. Those looking for North Korea to reform are likely to be disappointed. The camps have become an integral part of the Kim dynasty's machinery for maintaining power. Ahn Myeong Chul, who served as a guard in the gulags and saw his family members sent to a camp, noted in a recent interview: "The existence of political prison camps is essential for maintaining the regime. Kim Il Sung created these camps. He wanted to purge people who were against his will."

As dim as this picture looks, the brightest hope for North Korea is not found in its leadership but in its people. Despite the regime's attempts to maintain control, increasing numbers of North Koreans are exposed to information from outside. A rudimentary system of markets exists outside the total control of the state. These developments may one day lead to greater freedom for the country.

Meanwhile, the United States and the rest of the world have a task before them. After the Holocaust, after the horrors of the Soviet Union, Cambodia, China, and Rwanda, the world has pledged "never again." There's now eyewitness evidence that crimes against humanity are being committed by the North Korean state against its people. The U.N. Commission of Inquiry report demands a serious response.

Obviously, North Korea's belligerent actions and determination to field a nuclear arsenal remain profoundly destabilizing and must be a priority for policymakers. But that mustn't come at the expense of efforts by the United States and the world to improve the human condition in North Korea.

Victor Cha formerly served as Director on the National Security Council staff in the George W. Bush Administration. He is the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Director of Asian Studies at Georgetown University, and a Fellow in Human Freedom at the George W. Bush Institute. Lindsay Lloyd is Program Director, Freedom Collection at the George W. Bush Institute.