Gov't backs US action on Kim Jong-un

Washington to refer NK trial call to UNSC

By Kang Seung-woo

The government said it supports a move by the United States to refer the issue of trying North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in an international court to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), foreign ministry officials said Friday.

“The U.S. stance, based on the U.N. Committee of Inquiry (COI), is no surprise and we also back the COI,“ said a ministry official Friday.

The response came after the U.S. government said that the recommendation to bring the North Korean leader before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged human rights violations would be moved to the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) for consultation.

“Our position is that the issue of human rights abuses in North Korea is an international issue, not an inter-Korean one,“ he said.

A U.N. report released in February documented wide-ranging and ongoing crimes against humanity in North Korea and recommended that the U.N. should refer the details to the ICC and have those responsible prosecuted.

“That recommendation was included in the COI’s final report,“ U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a briefing.

She added that the North continues to have one of the worst human rights records in the world.

Earlier this month, a European Union-Japan draft regulation was circulated behind closed doors at the U.N. before U.N. human rights investigator Marzuki Darusman called for an ICC referral for North Korea Tuesday.

Forty one countries including South Korea and the U.S. signed on in support.

“The international community is now taking the issue very seriously after its decade-long efforts to resolve human rights issues in the North fell through,“ said Kim Youl-soo, a professor at Sungshin Women’s University.

According to Kim, the issue has been on the table since 2003, but the international community has failed to properly handle it before forming the COI in 2013.

“The establishment of the COI means a change of paradigm in North Korea’s human rights issues,“ Kim said.

“Now, the U.N. is striving to make the North Korean regime’s crimes against humanity the biggest issue in the international community.“

The U.N. plans to complete the move by the end of the year, but it remains to be seen whether it could refer the North to the tribunal in The Hague.

The resolution will be voted on in the Third Committee, which deals with human rights issues, and then the General Assembly before going to the 15-nation UNSC.

The ICC referral requires nine or more approvals at the council including those from all five permanent members ― the U.S., France, the United Kingdom, Russia and China.

However, China is not likely to just sit back and watch its ally being referred to the ICC.

“We believe that for the issue of human rights, referring a case to the ICC is not helpful in improving a country’s human rights situation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a recent briefing.

Meanwhile, the reclusive state has made a series of recent moves to engage with the international community.

It recently dispatched Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong to the U.N. General Assembly and Russia, while Kang Sok-ju, a secretary of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, also visited Mongolia and Europe in apparent efforts to temper with the resolution.

In addition, the North issued its own assessment of the country’s policies that “guarantee genuine rights of the people“ in September, followed by last month’s confession that it uses labor camps.

Its latest effort to drop the possible ICC referral is the North’s proposal to invite a U.N. investigator and the European Union’s top human rights official to the isolated country.