This week, several North Korean prison camp survivors testified at a U.N. Commission of Inquiry in Seoul, South Korea. Even though only a few dozen people, including a few journalists, attended the public hearing, the survivors bravely recounted the horrors they faced daily as prisoners in the isolated country. (Warning, some of the atrocities described in the story are incredibly disturbing.) The hearing marks the first time North Korea’s human rights record has been reviewed by the panel.
Despite the regime of Kim Jong Un’s denial, experts estimate that nearly 200,000 people live in horrific prison camps, where inmates are regularly tortured, beaten, starved and executed. Sadly, because North Korea has not signed the necessary statutes, the Commission said it would be “not appropriate” for them to determine whether or not the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over the country’s crimes against humanity …
