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U.N. Panel Urges Action on North Korean Rights Abuses U.N. Panel Urges Action on North Korean Rights Abuses
(about 1 hour later)
GENEVA — United Nations experts investigating human rights conditions in North Korea said Tuesday that they had gathered “shocking” evidence of widespread abuses and atrocities requiring an international response.GENEVA — United Nations experts investigating human rights conditions in North Korea said Tuesday that they had gathered “shocking” evidence of widespread abuses and atrocities requiring an international response.
Testimony heard by the three-member Commission of Inquiry about prison camps, torture, starvation and international abductions by North Korean agents suggests “large-scale patterns” of abuse “that may constitute systematic and gross human rights violations,” the panel’s chairman, Michael Donald Kirby, said in a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Testimony heard by the three-member Commission of Inquiry about prison camps, torture, starvation and international abductions by North Korean agents suggests “large-scale patterns” of abuse that may constitute “systematic and gross human rights violations,” the panel’s chairman, Michael Donald Kirby, said in a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The panel is to submit a final report to the rights council in March, but Mr. Kirby said that “what we have seen and heard so far — the specificity, detail and shocking character of the personal testimony — appears without doubt to demand follow-up action by the world community.” The panel is to submit a final report to the rights council in March, but Mr. Kirby said, “What we have seen and heard so far — the specificity, detail and shocking character of the personal testimony — appears without doubt to demand follow-up action by the world community.”
In public hearings held in August in the South Korean capital, Seoul, and in Tokyo, as well as in confidential interviews, the panel has heard accounts from survivors of North Korean prison camps, escapees from the isolated country and family members of people who were abducted from Japan and South Korea and brought to the North. In public hearings held in August in the South Korean capital, Seoul, and in Tokyo, as well as in confidential interviews, the panel heard accounts from survivors of North Korean prison camps, escapees from the isolated country and family members of people who were abducted from Japan and South Korea and brought to the North.
“We think of the testimony of a young man, imprisoned from birth and living on rodents, lizards and grass to survive and witnessing the public execution of his mother and brother,” Mr. Kirby said, citing one witness’s account. “We think of the testimony of a young man, imprisoned from birth and living on rodents, lizards and grass to survive and witnessing the public execution of his mother and brother,” said Mr. Kirby, citing one witness’s account.
Mr. Kirby also cited the testimony of a prison camp inmate who said she had seen another woman forced to drown her baby in a bucket, and the account of a man who said he had collected and burned the bodies of prisoners who had died of starvation before sprinkling their ashes on surrounding fields.Mr. Kirby also cited the testimony of a prison camp inmate who said she had seen another woman forced to drown her baby in a bucket, and the account of a man who said he had collected and burned the bodies of prisoners who had died of starvation before sprinkling their ashes on surrounding fields.
Mr. Kirby said that the panel had submitted several requests seeking cooperation and access to North Korea, including a letter to the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, but that the North Korean government had said it “totally and categorically rejects the Commission of Inquiry.” North Korea’s ally China, which did not oppose the creation of the commission, also declined to let it visit as part of its investigations, diplomats in Geneva said. Mr. Kirby said the panel had submitted several requests seeking cooperation and access to North Korea, including a letter to the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, but the North Korean government said it “totally and categorically rejects the Commission of Inquiry.” North Korea’s ally China, which did not oppose the creation of the commission, also declined to let it visit as part of its investigations, diplomats in Geneva said.
The North Korean mission’s counselor to the United Nations in Geneva, Kim Yong Ho, said in response to Mr. Kirby’s statement that the evidence cited by the panel had been “fabricated and invented by forces hostile” to North Korea, and dismissed the commission as “a hotbed of confrontation and distrust.” The North Korean mission’s counselor to the United Nations in Geneva, Kim Yong-ho, said in response to Mr. Kirby’s statement that the evidence cited by the panel had been “fabricated and invented” by forces hostile to North Korea, and dismissed the commission as “a hotbed of confrontation and distrust.”
Mr. Kirby said he had invited North Korea to provide hard evidence that refuted any of the testimony received, but said that none had been forthcoming. Mr. Kirby said he had invited North Korea to provide hard evidence that refuted any of the testimony received, but none was forthcoming.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 17, 2013Correction: September 17, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated which North Korean official responded to a statement Michael Donald Kirby, chairman of the Commission of Inquiry about North Korean prison camps. The response came from Kim Yong Ho, the North Korean mission’s counselor to the United Nations in Geneva, not from So Se-pyong, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

An earlier version of this article misidentified the North Korean official who responded to Michael Donald Kirby’s statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council.  It was Kim Yong-ho, the North Korean mission’s counselor to the United Nations in Geneva, not So Se-pyong, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.