UN Blasts N. Korea Leader
for Nazi-Like Crimes
CBN News Sr. Reporter
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
The United Nations has implicated North Korea's Kim Jong Un in crimes against humanity "strikingly similar" to those Nazis committed in the world's most secretive nation.
A U.N. panel issued a report listing atrocities that include systematic execution, torture, rape, and mass starvation.
In 2011, Kim Hye Sook, the panel's chief witness against the state, granted CBN News the first American television news interview.
For 28 years, Kim languished inside North Korea's oldest concentration camp. Although she eventually escaped the camp, some of her family were less fortunate.
"I lost seven members, including my grandmother, mother, brother, and my husband," she told CBN News.
Kim saw daily executions, mass starvation, and mothers killing their children to survive.
"Often these prisoners were killed over petty things, like stealing food," she told CBN News. "The guards would always gather other prisoners to watch the execution. It was a form of intimidation. The command was then given to fire at the prisoners."
Rape, murder, torture, slavery, sexual violence, forced abortions -- those were just a few of the words found in the 374-page report the United Nations said amounts to crimes against humanity.
"The commission of inquiry has unanimously come to the conclusion that there is abundant evidence of great wrongs of this kind," Michael Kirby, chairman of U.N. Commission of Inquiry, said.
Kim told U.N. investigators that food was so scarce fellow prisoners killed their own children to survive.
"One time a mother put her 9-year-old daughter in this big cast iron pot and boiled her," Kim recalled. "She was a too big for the pot so the mother had to chop her legs and head to fit the body in the pot."
The report estimates that between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners are still held in prison camps.
Jeong Kyoung-Kang was one of them. He told CBN News that before being released from North Korea's Yodok labor camp, he was severely tortured for alleged spying activities.
Specifically, Kang said the prison guards performed the Pigeon Torture in which the prisoner is hanged from the wall with his hands tied behind his back. He was in this position for several days.
"This happened repeatedly," Jeong said. "It's like you are hanging upside down. Your muscles tense up and your chest sticks out like a bird. I thought I was going to die."
An estimated 30,000 Christians are also reportedly being held in prison for their faith. Owning a Bible, praying, worshipping are all acts that can put up to three generations of a family in jail.
The United Nations is expected to submit their findings to the International Criminal Court with potential charges against the regime's leadership.
Meanwhile, North Korea dismissed the report, saying, "It is nothing more than an instrument of political plot aimed at sabotaging the socialist system."
A U.N. panel issued a report listing atrocities that include systematic execution, torture, rape, and mass starvation.
In 2011, Kim Hye Sook, the panel's chief witness against the state, granted CBN News the first American television news interview.
For 28 years, Kim languished inside North Korea's oldest concentration camp. Although she eventually escaped the camp, some of her family were less fortunate.
"I lost seven members, including my grandmother, mother, brother, and my husband," she told CBN News.
Kim saw daily executions, mass starvation, and mothers killing their children to survive.
"Often these prisoners were killed over petty things, like stealing food," she told CBN News. "The guards would always gather other prisoners to watch the execution. It was a form of intimidation. The command was then given to fire at the prisoners."
Rape, murder, torture, slavery, sexual violence, forced abortions -- those were just a few of the words found in the 374-page report the United Nations said amounts to crimes against humanity.
"The commission of inquiry has unanimously come to the conclusion that there is abundant evidence of great wrongs of this kind," Michael Kirby, chairman of U.N. Commission of Inquiry, said.
Kim told U.N. investigators that food was so scarce fellow prisoners killed their own children to survive.
"One time a mother put her 9-year-old daughter in this big cast iron pot and boiled her," Kim recalled. "She was a too big for the pot so the mother had to chop her legs and head to fit the body in the pot."
The report estimates that between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners are still held in prison camps.
Jeong Kyoung-Kang was one of them. He told CBN News that before being released from North Korea's Yodok labor camp, he was severely tortured for alleged spying activities.
Specifically, Kang said the prison guards performed the Pigeon Torture in which the prisoner is hanged from the wall with his hands tied behind his back. He was in this position for several days.
"This happened repeatedly," Jeong said. "It's like you are hanging upside down. Your muscles tense up and your chest sticks out like a bird. I thought I was going to die."
An estimated 30,000 Christians are also reportedly being held in prison for their faith. Owning a Bible, praying, worshipping are all acts that can put up to three generations of a family in jail.
The United Nations is expected to submit their findings to the International Criminal Court with potential charges against the regime's leadership.
Meanwhile, North Korea dismissed the report, saying, "It is nothing more than an instrument of political plot aimed at sabotaging the socialist system."
Watch here: N. Korean Christians video on CBN News
