UN security council urged to target North Korean officials over atrocities

Inquiry head Michael Kirby says leaders should be hit with sanctions and referred to international criminal court

theguardian.com, AFP, Friday 18 April 2014

Michael Kirby and other commission members at a media conference
after the meeting. Photograph: Cia Pak/Demotix/Corbis

The United Nations security council should slap targeted sanctions on North Korean officials responsible for grave human rights abuses and refer them to the international criminal court (ICC), the head of a special UN inquiry said on Thursday.

The retired Australian judge Michael Kirby told an informal meeting of the security council convened by Australia, France and the United States he wanted leading members of the reclusive regime hauled before the ICC for prosecution.

"More monitoring and engagement alone cannot suffice in the face of crimes that shock the conscience of humanity," Kirby said. "Perpetrators must be held accountable, it is necessary to deter further crimes."

North Korea did not send a representative and the meeting was snubbed by China, Pyongyang's sole major ally, and Russia.

"A new generation of senior officials now surround the supreme leader Kim Jong-un," Kirby said.

"They must be made to understand that they will themselves face personal accountability if they join in the commission of crimes against humanity or fail to prevent them where they could.

"The commission of inquiry therefore recommends to the security council the adoption of targeted sanctions against those individuals most responsible for crimes against humanity."

Kirby said most countries present supported the proposal to refer North Koreans to the ICC, but UN diplomats said any move was likely to face fierce opposition from China, the North's economic lifeline.

Last month the UN's top rights body also called on the security council to act against officials responsible for a litany of crimes against humanity in North Korea.

Kirby's commission of inquiry on North Korea released a hard-hitting report in February documenting a range of gross human rights abuses, including extermination, enslavement and sexual violence.

North Korea refused to co-operate with the investigation and said the evidence was "fabricated" by "forces hostile" to the country.

After Thursday's meeting, the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, praised council members for joining other countries for the first time to discuss the "tragic human rights situation in North Korea".

"We heard directly from the authors of a thorough, objective and credible UN report, and from victims of North Korean atrocities themselves," she added.

"These first-hand accounts –horrific stories of torture, rape, forced abortions and forced infanticide, extermination and murder –paint a chilling picture of the regime's systematic and remorseless repression of its citizens."

Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth echoed Power's sentiments.

"For the first time in its history, the security council has been confronted with the abhorrent crimes committed by the North Korean government against its people," he said.

"Given this extraordinarily severe repression, it would be unconscionable for the council to continue limiting its work on North Korea to the nuclear issue.

"The ICC was created to stand with the victims of such atrocities. The most appropriate response to the Kirby report is for the council to refer them to the ICC."

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