The U.N. special rapporteur on North Korea's human rights situation called Tuesday for referring the communist nation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to show that the international community takes the issue seriously.
"This would send an unequivocal signal that the international community is determined to take the follow-up to the work the Commission of Inquiry on the DPRK (North Korea) to a new level," Marzuki Darusman, the special U.N. investigator, said during a presentation of his latest report to the U.N.
He also urged the U.N. General Assembly to submit a U.N. Commission of Inquiry report to the U.N. Security Council for further action.
Darusman's presentation came a day after he held the first-ever meeting with North Korean officials on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. The two sides discussed the possibility of the U.N. investigator visiting the North.
The meeting came as North Korean diplomats have been struggling to spare the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, from a U.N. General Assembly resolution, led by the European Union, which calls for referring North Korean leaders responsible for violations to the ICC.
"I welcome these signs of increased engagement by the DPRK with the Human Rights Council and international community, and I hope they will bear fruit," Darusman said. "But these must be premised on a more fundamental acknowledgment of the scale of the problems and must not divert from efforts to ensure the accountability of those responsible."
SOURCE: YONHAP NEWS
