UNHCR investigate North Korea human rights abuses

The United Nations’ human rights body has unanimously agreed to set up a special commission to inquire into human rights violations in North Korea.The 47-nation UN Human Rights Council approved the resolution in Geneva on Thursday, according to the BBC.Japanese envoy Takashi Okada said Japan is strongly concerned about the human rights situation in North Korea, citing the abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents. The commission will also look into the county’s extensive system of political prison camps.North Korea’s UN delegation strongly rejected the proposal, calling it politically motivated and having nothing to do with human rights. The country is not a member of the Human Rights Council.North Korea’s human rights record will now be under intense scrutiny, and evidence gathered by the team could be used in future prosecutions for crimes against humanity.UN special rapporteur Marzuki Darusman, who presented the initial report on North Korea and will be a member of the inquiry, said that a key focus should be the country’s prison camps.The prison camps could qualify as crimes against humanity,” he said. “These are camps which have the purpose of driving the people being detained there towards a slow death.”His report also described “widespread and systematic violations of human rights” including enforced disappearances and using food to control people.UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the UN had evidence indicating that North Korea’s political prisons held around 200,000 people, with many subjected to rape, torture and slave labour.