UN Passes Resolution Calling for Referral of North Korea Case to the Hague Criminal Court

November 19, 19:13 UTC+3

It is also recommended to impose “targeted sanctions” against those who appear to be most responsible for the human rights abuses in the country

UN, November 19. / TASS/ . The UN Human Rights Committee has approved a resolution calling for North Korea case to be brought before the International Criminal Court on charges of human rights violations.

The resolution was adopted with 111 UN member states in favor. 19 countries, including Russia, Belarus, China, Cuba and Syria voted against it and 55 countries abstained.

The document condemns the “long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread, and gross violations of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea” and also recalls the decisions made by the UN Council on human rights, which give reasonable grounds to believe that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea committed crimes against humanity under the policy at the highest state level for decades."

In this respect the resolution requests a report to be delivered to the United Nations Security Council Commission and recommends the latter to take measures to ensure the accountability, that includes considering referral of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s case to the International Criminal Court and consider imposing effective and targeted sanctions against those who are responsible for the acts that, according to Commission, may constitute crimes against humanity.

At the same time the document also welcomes Pyongyang’s willingness to cooperate with the international community and individual countries for settlement of issues concerning human rights in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Pyongyang dismissed the UN resolution calling it confrontational.