On March 21, 2013, the United Nations Human Rights Council established the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It mandates the body to investigate the systematic, widespread, and grave violations of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The Commission recently presented its first oral report.

 

In the report, the Commission stated that the shocking evidence they had collected from defectors and others suggested large-scale patterns of abuse that demanded an international response. The chairman of the COI, Michael Kirby, said, “What we have seen and heard so far—the specificity, detail, and shocking character of the personal testimony—appears without doubt to demand follow-up action by the world community, and accountability on the part of [North Korea].”

 

Certain countries praised the Commission's report, while North Korea claimed that the evidence cited by the panel had been "fabricated and invented" by forces hostile to North Korea, and dismissed the Commission as "a hotbed of confrontation and distrust." However, North Korea couldn’t show any refutable evidence.

 

The findings of the Commission were part of an interim report to the council; the final report in March is expected to eventually be presented to the United Nations General Assembly.