North Korea isn't Nazi Germany — in some ways, it's worse

The U.N.'s brutal report on the Hermit Kingdom's crimes against humanity makes for horrifying reading. But what happens next?

North Korea
(Image credit: (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin))

On Monday, the United Nations released a scathing report on North Korea, strongly criticizing its alleged human rights abuses as without "any parallel in the contemporary world." The 36-page report and its 373-page addendum add gruesome details to what the world already knew or at least suspected: North Korea is a totalitarian state that, as official policy, does some pretty awful things to its citizens and quashes most basic freedoms.

The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, led by retired Australian judge Michael Kirby, based its report on a year of public hearings with about 80 witnesses and private, confidential interviews with another 240 victims, including people who'd spent time in North Korean prison camps, and other experts. North Korea did not allow the U.N. team into the country to collect information firsthand.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.