The ICNK Secretariat held an event, ‘ICNK Press Conference to Welcome the Establishment of a UN COI into North Korea,’ on the 25th at Seoul Press Center.
Hwang Woo Yeo, the president of Saenuri Party, stressed the importance of recent events at the UN Human Rights Council by saying through a video message that, “A COI will include not only victims’ testimonies and collation of information, but will also examine the people responsible for the violation of human rights, so it can lead to punishment.”
The former Vice Minister of Unification, Kim Suk Woo, also emphasized the importance of the establishment of a COI by saying, “If the result of the investigation is that Kim Jong Eun is responsible for these crimes, he can be punished by international society just as Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, and Libya’s Gaddafi were.
Ha Tae Keung, an assemblyman from the Saenuri Party, said, “The North Korean regime is under the illusion that if they don’t show their position, crimes against humanity will not be proven. However, their denial of showing their position is actually proving their guilt of committing crimes against humanity.” Also, he stated that effective investigation results will come from defectors’ testimonies and data as in the case of Syria.
The ICNK welcome the establishment of a COI and said through a statement, “As the sponsors of the resolution noted in Geneva during the passage of the DPRK resolution for establishing the commission, North Korea’s regime will now be under greater pressure than ever to account for its extensive human rights violations.”
