A UN investigator said yesterday that there was enough evidence to hold North Korean leader Kim Jong-un accountable for “massive” human rights atrocities committed by the state.
The comments by Marzuki Darusman, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, were some of the strongest yet from UN officials about Kim’s responsibility for what they say are widespread abuses in the isolated country.
A UN inquiry concluded in a Feb. 17 report that North Korean security chiefs and possibly even Kim himself should face international justice for ordering systematic torture, starvation and killings that were comparable to Nazi-era atrocities.
The report “was able to point unequivocally to the responsibility and the culpability [for] these massive human rights violations to a single source of policy decisionmaking in the country,” Darusman told a forum in Seoul.
“And therefore it’s only now that we are in the position to in fact directly put culpability on the supreme leader for these massive human rights violations,” Darusman added.
A UN resolution drafted by the EU and Japan urges North Korea’s referral to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. It does not single Kim out by name.
North Korea has dismissed the UN inquiry as part of a US plot aimed at destroying the country’s political system. Its diplomats have also been on a vigorous campaign in recent months to counter the moves to drag North Korea to the court.
“That, perhaps, has somewhat agitated the North Korean delegation,” Darusman said, referring to the focus on Kim.
The draft resolution will likely go to a UN General Assembly committee that deals with human rights as early as next week. If it is approved, it will be put to a vote at the General Assembly next month.
Only the 15-member UN Security Council can refer the situation in North Korea to the court, but diplomats say China, North Korea’s main benefactor, would likely veto such a move.
Meanwhile Cuba, which was involved in a violation of UN sanctions against North Korea last year, has come to the aid of Pyongyang to defend it against the push to bring its alleged human rights abuses to The Hague, envoys said on Wednesday.
Cuba, which like North Korea is a member of the 120-country bloc of non-aligned states, has circulated to all 193 UN members an amendment to the draft resolution that calls for deletion of the language recommending that the Security Council consider referring Pyongyang to the court.
Havana proposes “a new cooperative approach for the consideration of the human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” according to a draft of the amendment obtained by reporters.
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