By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
SEOUL, South Korea – A rights group in South Korea is planning to file a petition demanding the arrest of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il with the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.
This group, the Antihuman Crime Investigation Committee, is acting on behalf of 150 North Korean refugees who have defected to South Korea and wants the ICC to determine whether the systematic and widespread human rights abuses in North Korea constitute crimes against humanity.
Kim, the leader of a nation of 24 million people, rules with brutality. According to U.S. State Department statistics, North Korea operates numerous political gulags with an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 inmates.
Jung Gyoung-il, member of another North Korean human rights activist group, spent three years in one of the gulags, in North Korea’s infamous Yoduk prison. He said the soldiers beat him so badly that he falsely confessed to being a spy.
Prisoners carrying pails of human waste at Yoduk Prison in North Korea. Courtesy of Fuji TV.
Jung said, “I once asked why veterinarians treat us, and the solders said, ‘You are animals, so medical treatment can’t be offered by doctors.’”
He added that prisoners lost their sense of humanity because the conditions are so cruel.
In addition to the harsh treatments in the gulags, defectors who are caught are also abused. Lee Kyung-hee said when she was caught and brought back to North Korea from China, she was eight months pregnant. After she gave birth, she was told by a soldier to kill her own baby.
When she refused, she was beaten, and the soldier stood beside her prison bed and suffocated her baby.
The refugees who belong to the activist group acknowledge that their chances of brining the North Korean leader to justice are slim, but they want the world to know about the atrocities that take place inside the isolationist state.
Furthermore, critics say that even if Kim is never brought to trial, the efforts of the activists would be a success. Heo Man-ho, a political science professor at Kyungpook National University said, “Their actions are meaningful in awakening public opinion in the international community.”
Once the petition is filed, ICC officials said they would consider launching a preliminary examination on the alleged abuses in North Korea.
For more information, please see:
AP – Seoul activists want probe on Nkorean rights abuse – 3 December 2009
Los Angeles Times – North Korean rights groups want Kim put on trial – 4 December 2009
Times of the Internet – Group alleges Jong Il abuses rights – 4 December 2009
