Robert ParkMarch 22, 2013 10:38

Policy on North Korea needs to give a higher priority to human rights abuses

Commentary: UN may soon declare mass atrocities ‘crimes against humanity.’

Enlarge

North Korean soldiers applaud as they listen to a speech during an official ceremony attended by leader Kim Jong-Un at a stadium in Pyongyang on April 14, 2012. Negotiations with North Korea in recent history have focused increasingly on security issues, in lieu of human rights abuses that continue to affect people throughout Kim Jong-Un's hermit kingdom. (Pedro Ugarte/AFP/Getty Images)

The UN’s Responsibility to Protect doctrine asserts that the international community has the obligation to intervene when a given state fails to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, or is the perpetrator of such crimes. North Korea has and continues to commit all four of these crimes against defenseless and unarmed populations.