Since a landmark 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded that crimes against humanity were being committed in North Korea “pursuant to policies established at the highest levels of the state,” new testimonies and investigations have only reinforced those findings. The North Korean government, under the rule of Kim Jong-un, is accused of operating a vast network of political prison camps, suppressing all forms of dissent, and subjecting its people to starvation, arbitrary detention, torture, and public executions.
“There is no reasonable doubt that the regime’s treatment of its people fits the definition of crimes against humanity,” said Michael Kirby, the former chair of the UN Commission. “The world cannot claim it did not know.”
Legal scholars and human rights experts argue that North Korea’s violations meet the criteria outlined in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), including extermination, enslavement, imprisonment, persecution, and enforced disappearance of persons.
Satellite imagery continues to show the existence of sprawling prison camps, where detainees are believed to be held without charge for political or religious reasons, often for decades. Survivors have described life in these facilities as “hellish,” with some reporting being forced to bury fellow prisoners or perform backbreaking labor in freezing conditions with little food.
“People are tortured until they confess to crimes they didn’t commit,” said a recent defector who spent five years in Camp 15, one of the largest political prison sites in the country. “No one leaves those places the same—if they leave at all.”
Despite the mounting evidence, efforts to bring North Korean leaders to justice have stalled. Attempts to refer the situation to the ICC have been blocked by China and Russia at the UN Security Council, both of whom maintain close ties with Pyongyang.
Human rights organizations have expressed frustration at the lack of concrete action. “The international community has an obligation to act,” said Elizabeth Salmón, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK. “Impunity only guarantees more suffering.”
North Korea continues to deny all allegations, labeling defectors as “human scum” and accusing the UN of being manipulated by hostile Western governments. State media has dismissed reports of human rights abuses as “absurd fabrications designed to undermine our sovereignty.”
Yet with new testimonies emerging, pressure is building for a renewed push toward accountability. Legal experts are calling for alternative pathways, such as the creation of an international tribunal or the use of universal jurisdiction by national courts.
For now, millions of North Koreans remain voiceless under one of the world’s most authoritarian regimes. As the debate continues, one question lingers: how many more must suffer before justice is served?