UN may hold international inquiry into crimes against humanity in North Korea

Marzuki Darusman, an investigator for the United Nations, is expected to present a report to the council urging the creation of an international commission of inquiry to follow up on the abuses recorded in the eight years that a United Nations official has monitored human rights in the North…

The creation of a commission of inquiry would be a victory for defectors from North Korea, including a handful of people who are said to be survivors of the isolated country’s infamous prison camps. Some of them have become among the most vocal campaigners for human rights in North Korea, holding rallies, testifying about starvation and torture in gulags and arguing that foreign governments must break their silence about the people living under one of the most repressive systems in the world.

That argument has not always been popular in South Korea, where many of the defectors live. Many South Koreans believe that without an effective means of pressuring North Korea, which has defied and survived decades of international sanctions, an open challenge of its human rights record would only make it more paranoid and repressive.