By Kim Young-jin
Staff reporter
When former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik visited North Korea as a parliament member in 1995, it wasn't the utter darkness that befell Pyongyang at night that struck him most.
The lack of streetlight and neon advertising, those surefire signs of modernity, was, of course, troubling. But more telling was the lack of light on the faces of North Koreans he met. "You could see the sadness of the people in their eyes and on their faces," he recalled in a recent interview in Seoul with The Korea Times.
Their expressions, he said, told of the severe human rights abuses prevalent in the North, which a growing number of influential figures believe constitute crimes against humanity demanding immediate response from the international community.
Reports by the U.N. and other organizations paint a dark portrait of life within the North's opaque borders that includes vast malnutrition due to chronic food shortage, widespread torture, forced labor and a brutal gulag system in which an estimated 200,000 political prisoners languish.
Despite the reports, Bondevik, in Seoul for a National Assembly conference seeking ways to improve the situation, said human rights have taken a back seat to dealing with provocation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's regime.
Pyongyang drew tightened sanctions from the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) with its missile and nuclear tests last year, and its alleged recent attack on a South Korean warship has Seoul and its allies pushing for further censure at the council.
"The profound suffering of the North Korean people, whose lives continue to be miserable, has not really been up on the agenda as it should ― not in the U.N. or the international community," Bondevik said.
"And as the nuclear issue overshadowed the human rights situation earlier, now there's the danger that the Cheonan incident will overshadow human rights."
Bondevik, now president of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, urged the U.N. to establish a commission to investigate whether its "responsibility to protect" (R2P) doctrine is being violated by the North.
The relatively-new doctrine charges the international community to step in when a state fails to protect its citizenry from ― or perpetrates on it ― crimes against humanity. The U.N. should also bolster its annual resolution on the North by including a reference to R2P, he said.
The former Prime Minister added the international community should demand unhindered access to the entire country for purposes of food distribution and for the U.N. special rapporteur on North Korean human rights.
"It is imperative for the world to seize the opportunity offered by the sinking of the Cheonan to adjust its approach to engaging Pyongyang on the whole range of concerns it poses to the world," he said at the forum. "Protecting the people of North Korea requires nothing less."
Bondevik isn't alone in thinking the conditions in the North constitute crimes against humanity ― a number of influential figures here and abroad are calling for Pyongyang to be taken to task for its human rights offenses.
Such crimes are defined as when murder, enslavement, imprisonment, torture, rape, persecution and other odious acts are committed as widespread or systematic attacks directed at a civilian population with the knowledge and tolerance of the government.
Hwang Woo-yea, a lawmaker of the ruling Grand National Party, believes the regime should have to stand before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its actions.
"One of the most urgent tasks is taking legal action against the North Korea for the inhumane operation of political camps," Hwang told The Korea Times recently.
Hwang, who co-chairs the International Parliamentarians' Coalition for North Korean Refugees and Human rights, said that when North Korea joined the United Nations it vowed to abide by international rules. "Thus, the North Korean authorities are responsible for keeping their promises and stopping inhuman treatment of the people," he said.
"Otherwise, it should withdraw from the U.N. or be penalized for its breach of promises by the international community."
Hwang noted that the Crimes Against Humanity Investigation Committee, a human rights group here, filed a lawsuit in December last year against the North's gulags.
In a request to the court for a preliminary examination, the rights group included the testimony of North Korean defectors who had previously been imprisoned in the camps.
"Most of us were systematically tortured or beaten severely while in detention, and our physical and emotional scars remain," a defector said. "We are seeking accountability and justice for the crimes committed against us. And we are seeking an international response and action to halt these ongoing violations."
The ICC accepted the December case, but, as of last week, had yet to respond to it.
Despite the inaction so far, some believe that the initiative to try Pyongyang at the ICC could be taken a step further.
Jared Genser, a U.S.-based human rights lawyer, said the regime should be investigated by the court for its alleged torpedoing of the Cheonan.
"Kim may have exposed himself for the first time to international justice," he said at the National Assembly forum. "There is, I believe, a prima facie case for referring the sinking of the Cheonan to the ICC."
Under a statute of the ICC, one of the war crimes under the jurisdiction of the court is "killing... treacherously individuals belonging to a hostile army nation or army."
The Cheonan attack, he said, constituted an act of treachery as it betrayed the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War and the 1992 agreement on non-aggression between the two countries.
"The laws of war make it very clear that while an armistice merely suspends active fighting and can indeed be broken, notice must be provided by the other side first," Genser said.
The fact that the incident involved a South Korean vessel, and Seoul is party to the Rome Statute that established the ICC, gives the court jurisdiction to hear the case.
"All that is required at this point to trigger an investigation would be for a party of the Rome Statute to refer the situation to the prosecutor for the investigation," the lawyer said, adding that the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo could also do so on his own.
Winning such a case, Genser acknowledged, is a tall order as the ICC only prosecutes individuals and indicting a single person for the Cheonan attack would likely require further intelligence.
Despite the challenge, the lawyer said the international community would be wise to bring the incident to the court.
"Beginning such an investigation could mark a critical rhetorical turning point in labeling Kim as an international criminal, rather than merely as a dictator," he said. "And such a label is past due."
Rep. Hwang agreed that a difficult path should not hinder the push for better conditions in the North.
"Justice is not something that should be taken for granted," he said. "We must earn it. Whether there is a precedent or not, or however challenging the path maybe, we must not give up seeking justice over genocide and other horrible crimes against humanity."
Staff reporter Lee Tae-hoon contributed reporting to this article.