North Korean Atrocities Deserve Criminal Investigation, Says U.N.

The 33-year-old dictator told his countrymen in January that North Korea is close to possessing the ability to strike around the world. (Associated Press)

GENEVA (AP) – A U.N. panel has warned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that he may be held accountable for orchestrating widespread crimes against civilians in the secretive Asian nation.
The Commission determined that it had been
mandated to investigate the systematic,
widespread and grave violations of human rights in
the DPRK including, in particular, the following nine specific substantive areas:

Violations of the right to food,

The full range of violations associated with prison camps,

Torture and inhuman treatment,

Arbitrary arrest and detention,

Discrimination, in particular in the systemic denial and violation of basic human
rights and fundamental freedoms,

Violations of the freedom of expression,

Violations of the right to life,

Violations of the freedom of indiv
idual movement, and

Enforced disappearances, including in the form of abductions of nationals of other
states.

The panel's chairman, retired Australian judge Michael Kirby, tells the leader in a letter accompanying a yearlong investigative report on North Korea that international prosecution is needed "to render accountable all those, including possibly yourself, who may be responsible for crimes against humanity."
The report is a wide-ranging indictment of North Korea for policies ranging from deliberate starvation and torture in political prison camps with 80,000 to 120,000 people, state-sponsored abductions, publicly motivated executions, and lifelong indoctrination.

Kirby told reporters Monday that "the letter to the Supreme Leader was respectful."