North Korean leaders may be called to face ICC over 'human rights abuses'
Source: The Guardian
North Korean leaders may be called to face ICC over 'human rights abuses'
Peter Walker
theguardian.com, Thursday 24 October 2013 19.13 BST
UN investigators leading an inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea are consulting international lawyers over the possibility of summoning senior regime figures to appear before the international criminal court.
China could also face condemnation for its longstanding policy of sending home North Koreans, despite evidence they faced mistreatment and abuse on their return, said the head of the inquiry after what he called heart-rending testimony in London by escapees from the country.
Among witnesses to the panel, which has spent two days taking evidence in the UK after sessions in South Korea and Japan, was a former political prisoner who described having to enter the cell he shared with 40 other detainees via a door 50cm (20in) high, a deliberate policy by guards so they crawled "like animals".
Another UK-based exile wept as she said she had been forced to leave behind her Chinese-born infant son when she was sent back to North Korea for fear of the treatment he would receive under the country's racial purity beliefs.
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http://www.theguardian.com/law/2013/oct/24/human-rights-abuses-china-north-korea