North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un

NORTH KOREA: UN COMMISSION DOCUMENTS WIDE-RANGING AND ONGOING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

February 17, 2014: The UN Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) released its report, which has documented in great detail the “unspeakable atrocities” committed in the country, a number of which it concludes are likely to be crimes against humanity.
While North Korea denies the system of so-called kwanliso secret prison camps even exists, the Report says testimony from survivors and guards, coupled with satellite imagery, makes for overwhelming evidence. It estimates that between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners are still held in the camps, many "disappeared", meaning their families never know where they have gone or what happens to them in the future, even if they die in detention.
In a 400-page set of linked reports and supporting documents, based on first-hand testimony from victims and witnesses, the UN Commission of Inquiry describes a brutal and inhuman regime in the camps, with systematic torture, executions, rape and "the denial of reproductive rights enforced through punishment, forced abortion and infanticide". In such ways, it concludes, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have died in the camps over the decades. “The unspeakable atrocities that are being committed against inmates of the kwanliso political prison camps resemble the horrors of camps that totalitarian States established during the twentieth century. The institutions and officials involved are not held accountable. Impunity reigns.”
The report includes a letter sent by the Commissioners to the Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un, warning he could face trial at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. (Sources: ohchr.org, 17/02/2014)