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Key U.N. Committee Urges Prosecution of North Korea Over Human Rights Abuses U.N. Committee Urges Prosecution of North Korea Over Human Rights Abuses
(about 3 hours later)
United Nations members voted decisively on Tuesday for a groundbreaking resolution that condemns North Korea for human rights abuses and recommends possible prosecution for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. United Nations members voted decisively on Tuesday for a groundbreaking resolution that condemns North Korea for human rights abuses and for the first time recommends the prosecution of its leaders for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.
The resolution, voted on at a packed session of the General Assembly committee that oversees human rights issues, was the strongest action ever taken by a United Nations body to address abuses in North Korea, one of the world’s most isolated and opaque countries. Outraged and humiliated in a vote that was broadcast live on the United Nations website, North Korea’s representative called the resolution an insidious plot to destabilize the country by its enemies, notably the United States. The representative, Choe Myong-nam, said the North might conduct more nuclear weapons tests in response.
The approval — 111 in favor and 19 opposed, with 55 abstentions — brushed aside protests by North Korea and a handful of sympathizers, including Cuba, Iran, Venezuela and Belarus, who contended that the resolution was part of a politically motivated agenda orchestrated by North Korea’s enemies, notably the United States. Mr. Choe, a Foreign Ministry adviser on United Nations and human rights issues, also said the resolution, written by the European Union and Japan and co-sponsored by 62 members, including the United States, was based on a “compilation of groundless political accusations and contradictions.”
The vote came nine months after a United Nations investigative panel concluded that North Korea’s leaders could be held responsible for egregious crimes, including systematic killing, starvation and torture in a penal system that has incarcerated tens of thousands. Presented at the General Assembly committee that oversees human rights issues, the resolution was the outcome of a devastating report on North Korean repression conducted by a United Nations panel of experts and published in February.
The panel’s 400-page report recommended that the Security Council refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court at The Hague, where top North Korean officials, including Kim Jong-un, its 31-year-old leader, could be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. The resolution passed by a 111-19 vote, with 55 abstentions. Approval at a plenary General Assembly session is a formality.
Approval of the resolution came after committee members defeated an amendment presented by Cuba seeking to delete paragraphs in the provision that could lead to prosecution of North Korea at the International Criminal Court. The resolution still faces enormous obstacles because only the Security Council can refer cases to the International Criminal Court. China and Russia, which have veto power on the Council, were among those that opposed the resolution, foreshadowing further diplomatic confrontations. The issue presents a particular quandary for China, which has long been North Korea’s most important benefactor, even while increasingly exasperated with its behavior.
Cuba’s delegation said that such a provision had been concocted by North Korea’s adversaries, that it would set a dangerous precedent, and that it was a “tool to sanction and condemn developing countries.” Approval of the resolution by a decisive majority at the General Assembly committee represented a diplomatic slap to North Korean officials, who had campaigned furiously in the preceding weeks to thwart the vote or at least nullify its provision on accountability. That provision had apparently rattled the country’s top echelons, including the leader, Kim Jong-un.
Theoretically, the resolution means that the leaders could one day be hauled as defendants before the International Criminal Court at The Hague, which was created to provide justice for victims of atrocities and crimes against humanity.
Rights advocates welcomed the vote, describing it as an overdue acknowledgment of what the Human Rights Watch executive director, Kenneth Roth, called the North Korean government’s “unspeakable crimes.”
The resolution was the strongest action ever taken by a United Nations body to address documented abuses in North Korea, one of the world’s most isolated and opaque countries.
The North already has a strained relationship with the United Nations over its nuclear weapons activities, which have led to a litany of sanctions.
Mr. Choe, linking the human rights and nuclear issues, had warned other delegations that a yes vote on the resolution could compel his country “not to refrain any further from conducting nuclear tests.”
He called the resolution “confrontational in nature” and said it “will only result in unpredictable and serious consequences.”
The vote came nine months after an investigative panel created by the United Nations Human Rights Commission concluded that North Korea’s leaders could be held responsible for egregious crimes, including widespread killing, starvation and torture in a penal system that has incarcerated tens of thousands.
The panel’s 400-page report recommended that the Security Council refer North Korea’s leaders to the International Criminal Court for investigation and possible prosecution, calling the gravity and nature of abuses in the country “without parallel in the contemporary world.”
North Korean officials had refused to cooperate with the panel, which interviewed dozens of escapees and refugees and used satellite imagery and other forensic evidence to document a network of prison camps in the country.
In his statement preceding the vote, Mr. Choe said the panel’s work was based on “the fabricated testimonies of a handful of defectors who committed crimes and abandoned the country.”
Approval of the resolution came after committee members defeated an amendment presented by Cuba, a North Korea ally, seeking to delete the provision on accountability.
Cuba’s delegation said that the provision had been concocted by North Korea’s adversaries, that it would set a dangerous precedent, and that it was a “tool to sanction and condemn developing countries.”