A new NGO advocating for the freedom of the North Korean people, the Research Committee into Inhumane Crimes, will open on the 24th. It plans to investigate allegations of inhumane crimes committed in North Korea according to the rules of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Doh Hee Yun, the administrator of the new organization, told Daily NK on Tuesday, “This organization will do its best to bring Kim Jong Il and his associates to justice for crimes such as genocide, the operation of political prison camps and more.”
Doh explained, “We will try to protect the North Korean people from the inhumane crimes of Kim Jong Il and his associates by suing, warning and watching them.”
There are more than 50 organizations which intend to assist in these activities, including defector organizations like the Committee for the Democratization of North Korea, other North Korean human rights advocacy organizations and Korean War Abductees’ Family Union.
In March 4th of this year, when the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, experts on North Korea were quick to point out that it was possible to sue Kim Jong Il, who has committed innumerable inhumane crimes related to political prison camps, in the ICC.
Legal experts say that among the various inhumane crimes of which Kim Jong Il is guilty, abduction, mistreatment of POWs and the operation of political prison camps all fall within the remit of the ICC.
At the time when Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was issued with arrest warrants by the ICC, a spokesperson for the North Korean Foreign Ministry argued, “To try to arrest the leader of Sudan, who was legally elected by the Sudanese people, is an unprecedented violation of the autonomy of a state.”
He added, “The Darfur issue is Sudan’s domestic issue, not a problem that can be solved by foreign intervention and the violation of Sudanese people’s dignity.”
