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A portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is burned by protesters during an anti-North Korea rally. Dec. 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
NORTH KOREA’S REGIME has committed crimes as chilling as those of the Nazis, South Africa’s apartheid regime or Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge and must be stopped, the head of a UN inquiry said on Monday.
“Contending with the great scourges of Nazism, apartheid, the Khmer Rouge and other affronts required courage by great nations and ordinary human beings alike,” Michael Kirby told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“It is now your solemn duty to address the scourge of human rights violations and crimes against humanity in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” he said.
His comments followed a searing 400-page report, released last month, that documented a range of gross human rights abuses in the country, including extermination, enslavement and sexual violence.
“The gravity, scale, duration and nature of the unspeakable atrocities committed in the country reveal a totalitarian state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world,” said Kirby, a retired Australian judge.
The report insisted North Korea’s leaders should answer for a litany of crimes against humanity before an international court.
“The world has ignored the evidence for too long,” Kirby insisted, adding: “There is no excuse, because now we know.”
North Korean soldiers march during a mass military parade in Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square to celebrate 100 years since the birth of North Korean founder, Kim Il Sung, April 2012. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
‘Shameless fabrications’
North Korea, which refused to cooperate with the commission, has “categorically” rejected the report.
Its representative to the UN, So Se Pyong, slammed the findings as “shameless fabrications” by “the United States and other hostile forces”.
The commission, created in March 2013 by the Human Rights Council, was denied access to North Korea and relied on hearings in South Korea and Japan with 320 North Korean exiles.
The report condemned a widespread system of throwing generations of the same family into prison camps under guilt-by-association rules.
On Monday, Kirby showed footage from the hearings, including of survivor Shin Dong-hyuk who was born into a prison camp and spent his first 23 years there.
The 31-year-old says he was tortured, subjected to forced labour and compelled to witness the execution of his mother and brother at the age of 13.
Former prisoner Jee Heon-a can also be seen in the footage describing how she had witnessed a security guard beat a mother until she agreed to drown her newborn baby.
“The baby stopped crying (and) we saw bubbles rising up,” she recalled.
North Korea is estimated to have 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners, while hundreds of thousands more are believed to have perished in the camps over the past half century, “through deliberate starvation, forced labour, executions, torture,” the report said.
“If this report does not give rise to action, it is difficult to imagine what will,” Kirby insisted.
Retired Australian judge Michael Kirby, chairperson of the commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, shows the commission’s report, Monday, Feb 17, 2014. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
Around 100 Japanese abducted
The report also estimated 200,000 people from other countries had been abducted — mostly South Koreans left stranded after the 1950-1953 Korean War, but also hundreds from around the world since then.
North Korean representative So marched out of the Human Rights Council in protest when Japan allowed Shigeo Iizuka, the chairman of the Japanese Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, to take the floor.
Pyongyang admitted in 2002 that it had abducted 13 Japanese nationals over two decades. It said eight had died, including Iizuka’s sister Yaeko Taguchi, who was taken in 1978. Tokyo rejects the claims.
Kirby said his commission estimates around 100 Japanese have been abducted by North Korea.
Outside the council chambers, relatives of abductees brandished black-and-white photographs of their long-lost loved ones, demanding that Pyongyang finally come clean.
Many country representatives supported the call to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court.
“The EU believes that it is imperative that there be no impunity for those responsible for human rights violations,” EU representative to the UN in Geneva, Mariangela Zappia, told the council.
Along with Japan, the European Union is drafting a resolution on North Korea to be voted on by the council next week.
However, North Korea’s key ally China, which has a veto at the UN Security Council, would likely reject any referral of North Korean rights abuse cases to the ICC.
On Monday, Chinese representative Chen Chuandong lamented to the council that many of the report’s recommendations were “divorced from the realities on the peninsula and are highly politicised.”
People attending a mass rally chant slogans to show their support for the leadership in Pyongyang, North Korea Monday, Jan 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)
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The sentence should be the maximum you can receive if do not participate in these courses. What they are telling us is that they do not want to be cured if they refuse to do these courses . This guy gets early release for not doing the courses what lesson does this teach him .The judges are to lenient on these crimes.
@Donal Carey: Well said.
@Donal Carey: Well he didn’t get early release. He served every day of his sentence minus the remission which is automatically given to every prisoner. But sex offenders do not qualify for early release. Early release is separate to remission. Also you cant have prisoners taking part in sex offender treatment against their will for two reasons. Firstly it will adversely affect the participant’s who are genuinely trying to correct their behaviour if they have a disruptive individual in the group. It’s pretty much all group work. Secondly they have to talk about their offence etc so if someone is claiming that they’re innocent they obviously can’t do that. Personally I think there should be some sort of extra monitoring or something done when they are released if they haven’t taken part.
@Donal Carey: I see your point but it is probably also better that the people doing the course are the ones who genuinely want to be cured. Having the participation diluted by people faking it wouldn’t be good. It would waste a lot of professionals time. If there is a group element with others who actually want to be better than it would be unfair to them too.
I’m not saying I’m happy with unrepentant peadophiles getting the same sentence as repentant ones but it’s not straight forward
@Donal Carey: reopen spike island, dont renovate just reopen with armed guards
@Donal Carey: There is no evidence that paedophilia can be “cured” in fact most therapy sessions are based on getting them to refrain from there actions .I have heard the view its would be akin to asking to cure people of Heterosexuality
Give them the snip
@Oisin Curry: or snip them everyday with a hedge shears..where it hurts most..
@Oisin Curry: give them the rope, dont deserve anything less
@Oisin Curry: A rusty secateurs for pruning should keep things under control.
A team of psychologists and 60 therapy sessions how many children could do with them services no wonder the waiting list is so long for child services in this country being wasted on this sh@t.
@Faixa Roxa: Go away you nut case! Ffs you need help, find it elsewhere, or tell your story!
@GerryCummins: Look “Gerry” your fake Twitter account literally has no info on who you really are. Another troll & another spineless twit.
@Faixa Roxa: fine glass house you’re in there
@stephen bracken: really a ridiculous comment
He has done his time , leave him alone, he will be watched, if he re offends then he is —- whatever, . We have to stop being paranoid about prisoners being released.
@Eugene Comaskey: people need proper justice not this soft BS from a weak government
@Eugene Comaskey: Would you be happy if he was living near you and you had children ?
@Eugene Comaskey: the problem is if he reoffends it’s too late, another innocent child is destroyed. When he didn’t engage with services in prison he should have served his full sentence, which was light anyway. That needs to be built into sentences.
@Eugene Comaskey: ah yeah, we’re far too paranoid about sex offenders who refuse to engage in rehabilitation.
@Eugene Comaskey: you really are an idiot
@Eugene Comaskey: will he be watched if he emigrates to Spain? And then returns to UK or back to Ireland?
@Alan Scott: the chances are if Humpheries and his ilk are living in a neighbourhood and a child gets sexually assaulted, it will be by someone known to the child (& not to the community) who will have offended. We have to stop thinking if we punish known offenders and isolate them.. we are making things safer for our children… we aren’t…
I’d much prefer having a known offender as a neighbour than one who hasn’t been convicted (the latter being a much greater number).
@Eugene Comaskey: yeah all those stories of serial offenders and repeat offenders. And then this lad is clearly completely in denial about his crime. But yeah. You’re right. We’re paranoid for nothing.
Target practice, at best!
@Willie Murphy: What Humphreys is he is a evil B who at best should be still in behind bars the fact that he did cooperate in any of the courses and I bet he would go after children the minute he got the chance .
@Alan Scott: he will come to notice again
@Alan Scott: That’s why he & “they” should be deleted. Too much money d “rehabilitation” wasted on these vermin.
Why was this joker released early , he refused to participate in any sex offender courses whilst in prison, he is as much a danger now as he was before he was jailed. Sentences by out of touch judges are destroying people’s faith in the justice system.
@Gus Sheridan: why was his sentence only 22 months in the first place. Disgraceful
There should be a sex offenders register which is made public. Every parent has the right to know what type of individual is living in their area.
@Dwayne Jordan: most sex offenders never get justice. 9 out of 10 sex crimes are never reported
There should be some kind of a system like in the US where you’re notified if there’s anyone on the sex offender register moving into or living in your area. Whether that’s true or not I don’t know but I was told you can find out if they’re living near you
@Alex Nevin: What happens if the wrong person is targeted.
Oooohhhhh….look at me, I’m outraged.
As much as I hate to say this but in the eyes of the law he was punished and served his sentence and has a right to be left alone
Great article, well done Michelle, much needed. We must never loose our capacity to have empathy for each other. The victim should always come first its true but until we are prepared to consider the abuser as a human being, things can only get worse. Imagine for a moment, you are the abuser or one of your children has abused. Think about that for a moment. Of course what abusers do is heinous but that is the point. The damage they cause through their actions destroys lives and we have to be open to trying anything to prevent that happening and if we are so full of hatred and rage nothing will change. Things will get worse and we wont be able to break this awful cycle of abuse thats destroying our lives.
@June Kelly: life behind bars in an adult only prison would be just as effective. I don’t feel any empathy for a man that groomed and raped a child.
@June Kelly: I disagree I think it a ridiculous article. Sex offenders come out if prison every day. Tom Humphreys is no different to the sex offender released yesterday or the one tomorrow. He was sentenced in the basis of the information provided to the sitting judge.
His risk of re-offending is very low. These crimes happened 2010/11 he has spent a large portion of that time before he went to prison in a mental hospital. He has suffered enough. Why do people want to keep punishing him.
So much crap in this Article and I know from personal experience.
HOPE I BUMP INTO THIS FILTH
@STOIC SAVAGE: and what will you do?
@Paul O’Sullivan: that’s none of your concern Paul.
@STOIC SAVAGE: you are worse than him
@Paul O’Sullivan: hahaha cop yourself on pal…. You seem extremely sympathetic to paedos… Sicko yourself by the sounds of it
That programme sounds incredibly light handed, it isn’t like they were caught with a bit of hash, these are sick predators! Sorry, I don’t support this programme at all. If you’re wondering why it’s easy to get money for prisons it’s because these paedophiles should never get the opportunity to offend again, and this isn’t unique to any one party, across the board none of us want to see Tom Humphries or people like him to be free again.
Choose a life as a sex offender!! Out before 70% of other offenders! Don’t be stupid, choose SEX OFFENDER
A person becomes homeless…can’t find a place to live, it’s a hard life!!!… Another one defiles a child and on release is given accomodation???? Really!
Best way to cure these sick f_€ks is to burn them slowly
Paedophiles find minors sexually attractive in the same way I find mature women attractive and gays find their own gender attractive. We have the issue with it, not the paedophile. In the past, people made homosexuality illegal and tried curing it; we now know it doesn’t work and accept same sex couples as normal. If we can’t accept paedophilia as normal, we should at least accept it can’t be cured. For the record, it is possible for an adult to legally have sex with a minor in this country; a person is a minor until age 18, the age of consent is 17; try figuring that anomaly out.
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