In this undated photo released by the Korean Central News Agency and distributed Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013 in Tokyo by the Korea News Service, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, back, attends an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Kim issued “important” guidelines on how to bolster the army and protect the nation's sovereignty at the high-level ruling Workers' Party meeting, state media said Sunday, an indication Pyongyang has finalized formal procedural steps and is ready to conduct an atomic test. (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service) JAPAN OUT UNTIL 14 DAYS AFTER THE DAY OF TRANSMISSION
February 05, 2013 - 7:01 AM
GENEVA - A report by a U.N. special investigator on Tuesday urged the world body to open an inquiry into North Korea for possible crimes against humanity.
U.N. special rapporteur Marzuki Darusman recommended to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council that it authorize an investigation of North Korea's "grave, widespread and systematic violations of human rights."
Darusman's report Tuesday says a review of the isolated country's record since 2004 shows the need for a probe to fully document the responsibility of government and individuals for alleged abuses "in particular where they amount to crimes against humanity."
The report cites nine patterns of violations, such as prison camps, enforced disappearances and using food to control people, based on what it calls an analysis of a ream of U.N. documents including 22 previous reports over the past nine years and 16 resolutions adopted by the U.N. General Assembly, which now includes 193 member nations.
In a response to the report before it was made public, North Korea's U.N. Ambassador in Geneva, So Se Pyong, denounced the report and described Darusman — a former attorney general of Indonesia — as a "politically motivated" official whose job amounts to serving as "none other than a marionette running here and there in order to represent the ill-minded purposes of the string-pullers such as the United States, Japan and the member states of the (European Union)."
News from © The Associated Press, 2013