U.N. committee urges prosecution of North Korean leaders for crimes against humanity

(Image credit: (Han Myung-Gu/Getty Images))

last updated 8 January 2015

A United Nations human rights committee on Tuesday passed a resolution recommending that North Korea's leaders be prosecuted in the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. The resolution was based on a February report describing decades of executions, torture, rape, and mass starvation. North Korea denies the atrocities, saying the accusations were cooked up to smear its leaders. China, a key Pyongyang ally, could veto the resolution when it reaches the Security Council.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.

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