A United Nations report accuses North Korea of human rights abuse and says Kim Jong-un, the Supreme Leader of the country, might be held accountable for the crimes committed against humanity under his leadership.
The report released in Geneva, Monday, said that North Korea witnessed "extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence" in recent times.
The United Nations' Commission of Inquiry into North Korea provided evidence that between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners remain in internment camps, a number that has "fallen owing to deaths," reports Bloomberg Businessweek.
The 372-page report also stated that police and security forces "systematically employ violence and punishments that amount to gross human rights violations." Furthermore, it says North Korea uses torture as an established method of interrogation process and that food is exercised as a means to control citizens.
The report accuses the secretive regime of denying the citizens of basic freedoms of thought, expression and religion, and its abduction of citizens of neighboring South Korea and Japan.
Michael Kirby, the inquiry chairman has compared the crimes to Nazi-era atrocities, reports Sky NEWS. "At the end of the Second World War, so many people said: If only we had known ... Now the international community does know. There will be no excusing of failure of action because we didn't know," he said. Also the number of officials possibly responsible might be up to hundreds.
The UN inquiry commissioners wrote a letter to Jong-un stating that they refer to the International Criminal Court so that it could hold liable all those including Jong-un himself for the crimes committed against humanity.
North Korea stated that the report was plainly fabricated by its enemies that include the U.S., the European Union and Japan. In its two-page statement, North Korea said that the report was a political conspiracy to damage the socialist system and defame the country. Also, it argued that human rights violations "do not exist in our country," reports Reuters.
The UN commissioners also blamed China, North Korea's prime ally for "aiding and abetting crimes against humanity" by sending migrants and rebels back to the country to face torture or execution.
China said the allegations were unfair. "Of course we cannot accept this unreasonable criticism," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a news conference Tuesday, reports Reuters. "We believe that politicizing human rights issues is not conducive towards improving a country's human rights. We believe that taking human rights issues to the International Criminal Court is not helpful to improving a country's human rights situation."
