U.N. Rights Expert Urges War Crimes Charges against N. Korea

A top U.N. rights investigator said Tuesday it was time for the global community to challenge North Korea on a whole "new level" by pursuing war crimes charges against Pyongyang, despite the regime's recent efforts to engage on the rights issue.

Marzuki Darusman, the U.N. special rapporteur on North Korea, urged the General Assembly to refer a damning report by a U.N.-mandated Commission of Inquiry, detailing systemic rights abuses in the nuclear-armed nation, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for possible prosecution.

"This would send an unequivocal signal that the international community is determined to take the follow up to the work of the commission ... to a new level," he said.

The commission's report, published in March, detailed a vast network of prison camps and documented cases of torture, enslavement and rape.

It included evidence suggesting crimes against humanity had been and continue to be committed by North Korean institutions and officials at the highest level of the state.

"The crimes listed and evidence gathered therefore clearly merits a criminal investigation," Darusman told a General Assembly committee dealing with human rights issues.

-- Charm offensive --

The U.N. report stirred alarm in Pyongyang, which in recent months has launched a diplomatic offensive to actively counter its findings in public forums.

In the past, the North had simply refused to discuss rights issue, but observers say it has been galvanized by the prospect of its leadership being charged at the ICC.

Darusman's presentation on Tuesday came a day after a rare meeting with North Korean officials -- the first between Pyongyang and a U.N. rights investigator in 10 years.

Darusman said the talks represented "the beginning of a process" and noted that more progress had been made in the last three months than in the last 10 years "in terms of the openness and the readiness of the North Koreans to come out of their shell."

During the meeting that lasted for more than an hour, the North Koreans offered to extend an invitation to the rapporteur and to the U.N. rights commissioner to pay a landmark visit to North Korea.

But the North Koreans also raised their objection to a planned U.N. resolution requesting that the Pyongyang regime be referred to the ICC.

The draft resolution is to be presented by the European Union and Japan to the U.N. General Assembly later this week and a vote is expected next month.

-- 'Deep concern' -

On Tuesday, Darusman again welcomed the "signs of increased engagement" by North Korea on the rights issue, but noted with "deep concern" that Pyongyang had rejected all the findings of the Commission of Inquiry.

Any efforts by the North to engage with the international community should be premised on a fundamental acknowledgment of the problems, and "must not divert from efforts to ensure the accountability of those responsible," he said.

Earlier this month, Australian judge Michael Kirby, who led the U.N. inquiry, urged the United Nations to reject the "charm offensive" from Pyongyang and seek war crimes prosecutions for the regime.

Kirby described signs of openness as "crumbs thrown to the international community" and said tough action on North Korea should not be "traded away."

North Korea's efforts to discredit the Kirby panel's report included releasing a video Tuesday on a state-run website in which the father of a prominent defector living in South Korea said the harrowing testimony his son provided to the U.N. Commission was false.

Shin Dong-Hyuk, who was born in a North Korean prison camp, became well known after the publication of the best-selling book "Escape from Camp 14" which recounted the abuses he witnessed.

In the video -- sub-titled in English -- his father denied that the family had ever lived "in a so-called prison camp" and rejected other key elements of Shin's testimony.

Writing on his Facebook page, Shin confirmed the man in the video was his father and accused the North Korean authorities of holding him "hostage."

"No matter what the dictator does to my father, they cannot cover my eyes; no matter what the dictator does, they cannot cover up my mouth," he wrote.