A United Nations General Assembly committee Tuesday voted in favor of a draft resolution
referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court for crimes against
humanity as well as "targeted sanctions" for rampant human rights
abuses.
The
111-19, with 55 abstentions, is merely a recommendation. The General Assembly
does not have the power to refer the regime or its leader Kim Jong Un to the
ICC.
The non-binding measure will come
up for a vote by the General Assembly in December.
The
authority to refer a country to the ICC lies only with the U.N. Security
Council, a 15-member body charged with maintaining global security.
The five permanent members at the
core of the Security Council, including China and Russia, wield veto powers. Continue..
Opponents
of the resolution -- including China, Russia and Cuba -- said the measure was
politically manipulated and would set a precedent for other nations to be
targeted in the future.
A North
Korea representative told the U.N. gathering Tuesday that the resolution
"provoked confrontation" and "failed to reflect the reality on
the ground."
China is
likely to use its veto as its officials have repeatedly said efforts to send
North Korea's leadership to the ICC "won't help improve a country's human
rights condition." North Korea's longtime ally has never wavered in its
support for Pyongyang.
North
Korea's leaders have been accused of employing murder, torture, slavery, sexual
violence and mass starvation to prop up the isolated regime and exercise total
control over its citizens.
North
Korea has repeatedly denied the existence of political camps or human rights
abuses in the country.
North Korea: 'We were forced to
eat grass and soil'
The
country has accused the United States and its allies of seeking to discredit
and overthrow the leadership in North Korea.
In May,
Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have
asked the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes in Syria. They
were the only two of 15 countries to vote against the resolution.
The U.S.
backs the resolution to sanction and refer North Korea to the ICC.
Opinion: Stop romancing North
Korea
North
Korea last week released the last remaining Americans -- Kenneth Bae and
Matthew Todd Miller -- detained in the country, but the gesture has not altered
the United State's stance on the country's human rights record.
In
February, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North
Korea published a 400-page report documenting widespread torture and abuse, and
called for urgent action, including the referral of its findings to the ICC for
possible prosecution.
Kim Jong Il's former bodyguard
tells of beatings, starvation in prison camp
The
almost yearlong investigation by the commission involved more than 320
witnesses in public hearings and private interviews. It listed a litany of
abuses including a new mother being forced to drown her newborn, corpses being
eaten by dogs and rampant beatings.
North
Korea's ambassador to the United Nations, So Se Pyong, said the United States
and "other hostile forces" had fabricated the report in an attempt to
"defame the dignified image of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
and eventually eliminate its social system."
Before
Tuesday's vote, an amendment proposed by Cuba to delete the language about an
ICC referral was rejected 77-40, with 50 abstentions.
Cuban
Ambassador Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez said U.N. resolutions targeting North Korea
or any other single country were a "tool to attack others."
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