U.N. Panel Wants North Korea Referred to ICC for Crimes against Humanity

By Katie Bacharach

Michael Kirby, Chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea, appealed to the U.N. Security Council to have North Korea referred to the ICC, according to Reuters. 

The U.N. inquiry’s final report determined that North Korean security chiefs, and possibly even Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, should be brought to the court for ordering systematic torture, starvation, and killings “comparable to Nazi-era atrocities.” 

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power agreed with the inquiry’s recommendation. However, China has suggested that it would shield North Korea from prosecution, telling the Human Rights Council in Geneva last month that the inquiry had mad “unfounded accusations and recommendations ‘divorced from reality’.”