A United Nations panel has concluded "abundant evidence" from from scores of witnesses shows that North Korean officials have committed crimes against humanity in that country, the chairman of a United Nations commission told reporters Monday, according to the Associated Press.
After an investigation lasting months, the panel revealed evidence of abusive prison camps, starvation, abductions, stunted growth of children, said Michael Kirby, chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea, the AP reported.
The panel's 372-page report is a wide-ranging indictment of North Korea for policies ranging from deliberate starvation and torture in political prison camps with 80,000 to 120,000 people, state-sponsored abductions, publicly motivated executions, and lifelong indoctrination, the AP reported.
The commission released the report Monday after collecting testimony from more than 300 people and examining satellite images and other information, according to the AP.
"I do expect the report will galvanize action on the part of the international community," Kirby said, the AP reported.
U.N. reports do not usually directly implicate a nation's leader but this report had a letter from the panel's chairman directly warned Kim that international prosecution is needed "to render accountable all those, including possibly yourself, who may be responsible for crimes against humanity," according to the AP.
"Even without being directly involved in crimes against humanity, a military commander may be held responsible for crimes against humanity committed by forces under the commander's effective command and control," retired Australian judge Michael Kirby wrote, the AP reported.
"In the letter, the commission drew attention to the principle of command and superior responsibility under international law," the report says, according to the AP. "It urged the Supreme Leader to prevent and suppress crimes against humanity, and to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted and brought to justice."
Kirby also added that "the letter to the Supreme Leader was respectful" but that it was impossible not to include his name in the list of suspects because of what he described as the government's totalitarian nature, the AP reported.
North Korean officials did not cooperate with the panel's investigation, saying in correspondence last year that the country "totally and categorically rejects" the probe ordered by the U.N.'s 47-nation Human Rights Council, which is based in Geneva, according to the AP.
Kirby also wrote to China's U.N. ambassador Wu Haitao in Geneva saying there's evidence that Chinese officials have in some cases shared with North Korean officials "information about the contacts and conduct" of North Korean nationals subject to repatriation, the AP reported.
Haitao replied to the panel and denied that repatriated North Korean citizens from China face torture in North Korea and added that China "will continue to prudently and properly handle" North Korean citizens who enter China illegally, according to the AP.
