Kim Jong Un could be called up before the Hague to be charged for Crimes Against Humanity, a UN inquiry said today.
"North Korea's leadership is committing systematic and appalling violations of human rights against its own citizens in a scale unparalleled in the modern world, crimes against humanity with strong resemblances to those committed by the Nazis," the inquiry said.
The UN's commission on human rights in North Korea, which has gathered evidence for almost a year, includes harrowing public testimony and said there was compelling evidence for torture, execution, deliberate starvation and an almost complete lack of free thought and belief.
The chairs of the trial have now written to Kim Jong Un, to tell him he could face trial at the International Criminal Court for personal culpability, as he is the head of state and the military.
Michael Kirby, a retired Australian judge on the panel, said that there were "many parallels" between the evidence given and war crimes committed by Nazis in WW2. He noted specifically the evidence of a prison camp, who one inmate gave evidence for, involved the practice of burning bodies and using the remains as fertilizers and one woman forced to drown her newborn baby because it was suspected to have a Chinese father, as this would break the North Korean doctrine of racial purity. This echoes the Nazi crimes against the Jews, where their ashes and remains were used to build roads.
"When you see that image in the back of your mind, it does bring back memories of the end of World War 2, and the horror, the shame and the shock. I never thought in my lifetime it would be part of my duty to bring revelations of a similar kind," Kirby said.
Kirby continued that this was not like the end of WW2, however, and that other nations could not say they did not know the extent of the crimes.
"Now the international community does know. There will be no excusing a failure of action because we didn't. The suffering and the tears of the North Korean people demand action. The convictions for these crimes could reach into the hundreds."
The call to the ICC will likely be vetoe'd by China, who send people back across the border when they escape the camps.
The report concludes that the crimes against humanity stem directly from the state, as it has been run on a variant of Stalinist self-reliance and dynastic rule and indoctrination.
There are estimated to be around 80,000-120,000 political prisoners who are victims of state-led disappearances (kidnappings), with their family left ignorant as to where they have gone.
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