(UnitedVoice.com) – The inner workings of North Korea are notoriously secret. Stories of horrific abuse by the government make it into the news periodically but aren’t very common because the country strictly controls the flow of information. For the 19th year in a row, the United Nations has condemned the nation.
On November 15, during a meeting in New York City, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly issued a resolution calling on its members to not repatriate political refugees to countries where there are human rights concerns. The resolution also asked the nations who are part of the UN Security Council to consider referring human rights abuses North Korea carries out to the International Criminal Court.
The resolution stated that it condemns “in the strongest terms the long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights” by North Korea. It was the 19th time the committee had passed such a resolution against the nation.
Many nations, including the US, have sanctioned North Korea over the years because of the country’s abuses. However, the UN has little power to do anything to stop Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un and the way he runs his country, making the resolutions against the nation largely symbolic. Even if the case were sent to the International Criminal Court, there’s little anyone can do.
In 2022, the US Department of State released a report on the human rights abuses allegedly carried out by North Korea. They included torture, forced disappearances, unlawful killings by the government, arbitrary arrests and detainments, holding political prisoners, gender-based violence, coerced abortion, forced sterilization, running political prison camps, censoring the media, restrictions on the internet, and many other violations that make life for North Koreans difficult. The US government stated the authorities in the country have complete control over the security forces, and those forces are also accused of carrying out abuses.
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