The EU and Japan are encouraging the UN Security Council to follow the recommendations of a groundbreaking inquiry into North Korea’s human rights and refer the nation’s situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Their draft resolution for the UN General Assembly’s human rights committee, obtained on Thursday, also presses for targeted sanctions after the UN commission of inquiry report earlier this year was harshly critical of the impoverished, reclusive regime.
In response, North Korea has circulated a letter to diplomats saying it will submit its own draft resolution on human rights.
The letter obtained on Thursday says the EU-Japan resolution “immediately means confrontation,” and it says Pyongyang’s own draft will include a mention of the country’s free education and medical systems, and the “recent positive measures” to improve relations with South Korea.
The commission of inquiry’s report sharply increased international pressure on North Korea’s authoritarian government over its human rights situation and a North Korean briefing this week at the UN on human rights was seen as an effort to get ahead of the expected UN General Assembly resolution.
The EU-Japan draft resolution is non-binding and also needs approval by the 193-member General Assembly. Even if the more powerful Security Council takes up the recommendation to refer North Korea’s situation to the ICC, the effort is expected to fail because China, North Korea’s most powerful ally, would likely use its veto power as a permanent council member.
The draft resolution urges the Security Council to consider the scope “for effective targeted sanctions against those who appear to be most responsible for crimes against humanity.”
It does not include names, but the commission of inquiry warned North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in a letter saying he may be held accountable for orchestrating widespread crimes against civilians, including systematic executions, torture, rape and mass starvation.
The EU and Japan have teamed up in recent years on General Assembly resolutions on North Korea’s human rights, but the call to consider an ICC referral is new.
The UN commission of inquiry’s 372-page report is a wide-ranging indictment of policies, including political prison camps with up to 120,000 people and state-sponsored abductions of North Koreans, Japanese and other nationals.
“We dare say that the case of human rights in the DPRK exceeds all others in duration, intensity and horror,” commission head Michael Kirby told the Security Council, using North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Pressure continued in March when the UN’s 47-nation Human Rights Council approved a resolution on North Korea that allowed a special rapporteur to keep investigating suspected crimes against humanity and other abuses in the nation.
The draft resolution says the special rapporteur has not been allowed to visit the country.
Rights observers say Pyongyang is now recognizing that the international focus on its human rights will not fade away.
On Tuesday, a North Korean official publicly acknowledged to the international community the existence of his country’s “reform through labor” camps, while another official told reporters that the secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party recently visited the EU and expressed interest in dialogue, with discussions on human rights expected next year.
An EU official in Brussels confirmed a recent North Korea meeting with EU Special Representative for Human Rights Stavros Lambrinidis and said any dialogue currently planned is limited to rights issues.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of