UN will accuse North Korea of crimes against humanity

Leaks indicate that on Monday the United Nations will announce that it has concluded North Korea has committed crimes against humanity and will refer them to the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Michael Kirby, a retired Australian judge, spearheaded the UN inquiry into the hermit kingdom and discovered irrefutable evidence of "extermination and starvation." The inquiry, ongoing since March 2013, also concludes that the North Koreans abducted people in Japan and South Korea. Though North Korea is not a signatory to the treaty that created the ICC, the point appears moot. China's veto on the Security Council assures that formal sanctions against Kim Jong-un will be toothless at best and nonexistent at worst. Stories from North Korean detention centers are truly harrowing; one alleges that a mother was forced to drown her newborn child. These findings should be unsettling to the civilized world and underscore the importance and necessity of humanitarian aid. The brutality of these behaviors demands redress, but any response must not lose sight of the fact that the people of North Korea are the only victims.

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