Ten years have passed since the release of the UN Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The report documented evidence of systematic, widespread, and gross human rights violations by North Korea. And it asserted North Korea has committed human rights violations and abuses that amount to crimes against humanity.
Unfortunately, a decade later, this is still the case. According to a joint statement by the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea commemorating the tenth anniversary of the UN Report, North Korea remains one of the world’s most repressive regimes, imposing severe restrictions on freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, association, religion or belief, and movement. These violations and abuses are well-documented, as is the inextricable link between them and North Korea’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.
North Korea’s use of food distribution policies that favor the military, have led to chronic malnourishment among its citizens. Its widespread denial of human rights and fundamental freedoms ensures it can expend inordinate resources, much of which are generated through its illicit cyber activities, on the development of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.
Last August, during the United States’ Presidency, the Security Council held its first open briefing since 2017 on the human rights situation in North Korea. Fifty-two Member States and the Delegation of the European Union demanded the Council’s continued focus on North Korea’s human rights violations and abuses. “This year, we will work to ensure the Security Council remains seized with this issue of international peace and security,” the joint statement said.
The U.S., Japan, and South Korea called for a “reinvigorated effort to bring justice to victims of human rights violations and abuses in [North Korea]. And we urge [North Korea] to abide by its obligations under international law, take immediate steps to end all human rights violations and abuses – including the immediate resolution of issues involving abductees, detainees, and unrepatriated prisoners of war – and engage with the UN’s human rights experts for that purpose.”
The joint statement calls on all member states to join in holding North Korea to account for its human rights violations and abuses by implementing the recommendations of the UN Commission of Inquiry.
