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Is N.Korea a Case for the Int’l Criminal Court?

Posted by Kim Nang-gi on 24 Feb 2010 | 2 comments


Massacres of civilians, rape, torture and looting have plagued the Darfur region in Sudan for eight years. The horrors are the result of clashes between armed militants who have come to dominate the region and forces backed by the government in Khartoum. Two million people have become refugees, and more than 200,000 are believed to have died. In March last year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for crimes against humanity.

Al-Bashir could be arrested if he travels to any of the ICC’s 110 member countries. At present, rebel leaders or politicians from Uganda, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Sudan are either being tried by the ICC or are in the process of being indicted. The Kenyan government is also facing an ICC investigation into post-election violence.

The ICC was established in July 2002 under the Rome Statute signed four years earlier. The court is charged with indicting and punishing war criminals and people who have committed crimes against humanity, including genocide, torture, rape and other inhumane acts. It consists of 18 justices and one prosecutor and is headquartered in the Dutch capital of The Hague.

Korea became the 83rd member of the ICC in 2002. Former Seoul National University law professor Song Sang-hyun, who has served as a judge at the ICC since 2003, was elected president of the court in March last year for a three-year term.

Now a human rights forum hosted by the Korean Bar Association discussed the issue of sending North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and other high-ranking officials in the communist country to the ICC, and it was said that this could be done if South Korea and Japan can prove that the North abducted their citizens and Kim gave the orders.

A major problem is that arrest warrants issued by the ICC are useless without the cooperation of law enforcement authorities of the countries concerned. That the world’s major powers, China, Russia and the U.S., as well as some Arab states, are not members of the ICC also undermines its power. “Permanent peace cannot be achieved without the realization of justice,” Song has said. “The ICC is the place where people who commit crimes against humanity are brought to justice.” Will the day come when the ICC gets to try North Korean officials for their human rights abuses?


source:  Chosun Ilbo




 

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What would be incentives for South Korea and Japan to not work with the ICC?  Is there anything that would work against their wanting to bring Kim Jong-il to court? From my understanding, it is not like North Korea has a strong relationship with these counties that would prevent the countries from wanting to work against North Korea. Also, it seems like South Korea already has a strong relationship with ICC. Just how strong is it with the government though?

Amber
12:52 PM on 24 February 2010

North Korea is a UN member state, so the UN Security Council has the power to ask the ICC to investigate, as it did with Sudan in the Darfur case (neither Sudan or North Korea are members of the ICC).  The current President of the ICC is South Korean, so any case opened against North Korea would inevitably, rightly or wrongly, raise a hue and a cry from North Korea saying that the ICC is a political tool of the West.  Sudan makes that claim regarding Darfur.  So the element of “realpolitik” is inevitable in ICC investigations and cases.  Another consideration is if the alleged crimes that North Korea has committed fall under the temporal jurisdiction of the ICC, which began on July 1, 2002.

Paco de Onís
07:42 PM on 24 February 2010

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