UN report says North Korea should face trial over violent treatment of its citizens

Two people who had knowledge of a UN Commission of Inquiry report told The Associated Press that North Korea has been found to have committed crimes against humanity and is giving a recommendation to refer its finding to the International Criminal Court. The report, which is set to be released on Monday, did not review in detail the individual responsibility for the crimes allegedly committed but recommended some steps for accountability of the crimes, The National Post said in a report.

The UN Commission of Inquiry reported conducted a yearlong probe on North Korea, and reportedly found evidence to account the various crimes committed, which included extermination of individuals, crimes against humanity on the country's starving population, and a broad campaign to abduct certain people in South Korea and Japan.

An individual, who had no authorization to provide the information prior to the report's release and chose to remain anonymous, was said to have given the outline of the conclusions of the report. A US official have confirmed the individual's information, and also chose to be anonymous for the same reasons as of the individual's, the National Post said.

Retired Australian judge Michael Kirby led the three-member commission, and was set up on March 2013 by the top human rights body of the UN as its latest efforts to review evidence of human rights violations in North Korea, a known reclusive and authoritarian state, the US newspaper said. North Korea is known for its political prison camps, repression and famine, of which caused hundreds of thousands of natives their lives in the 1990s.

"We totally reject the unfounded findings of the Commission of Inquiry regarding crimes against humanity. We will never accept that," said an anonymous spokesman for North Korea's UN Mission in New York.

The National Post said the commission will be presenting its findings formally to the Human Rights Council on March 17.

Tags

UN Commission of Inquiry, North Korea, Kim Jong Un, International Criminal Court

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