13 Michael Kirby says he has been 'moved to tears' by North Korea human rights testimony in UN inquiry - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Michael Kirby says he has been 'moved to tears' by North Korea human rights testimony in UN inquiry - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Updated 30 Oct 2013, 9:31am
PHOTO: Mr Kirby says some of the testimony the Commission of Inquiry has heard has been distressing. (Reuters: Denis Balibouse )
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MAP: Korea, Democratic People's Republic Of

Former High Court judge Michael Kirby says he has been moved to tears by some of the testimony he has heard about alleged human rights abuse in North Korea.

Mr Kirby is serving as the chairman of a UN special committee into human rights violations by Pyongyang that was established in March.

He says some of the testimony he has heard from former detention camp inmates has been particularly distressing.

"I am a judge of 35 years experience and I've seen in that time a lot of melancholy court cases which somewhat harden one's heart. But even in my own case there have a number the testimonies that have moved me to tears," he said.

"I'm not ashamed to say that you would have to be a stony-hearted person not to be moved by the stories the Commission of Inquiry has received."


The inquiry's preliminary report last month detailed starvation, torture and atrocities which it compared to Nazi abuses during World War II.

Mr Kirby has told the UN General Assembly's human rights committee the reports have been deeply troubling.

"Some of the testimony has been extremely distressing. Testimony concerning the detention facilities. The lack of proper food in them. The fact that people are in the detention facilities who have committed no offense and no crime according to their testimony."

He also says he has heard distressing allegations of North Korean agents abducting people, including children, from Japan.

"Similarly the abduction of soldiers during the Korean war, 60 years ago and the still-waiting relatives who only ask that they be informed what happened to their loved ones."

UN inquiry no ‘political plot’

The inquiry was set up after pressure from Japan, South Korea and Western powers to begin building a case against North Korea for possible international criminal prosecution.

North Korea is not a member of the International Criminal Court, but the Security Council can ask the court to investigate non-signatories.

In September, North Korean diplomat Kim Yong Ho dismissed the inquiry as a "political plot" to force regime change in North Korea.

But Mr Kirby says the inquiry has consistently tried to reach out to Pyongyang to give them a fair hearing.

"The members of the Commission of Inquiry are not biased against North Korea. On the contrary, throughout our mandate from the very beginning, we have reached out to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."

The inquiry's final report is due to be handed down in March 2014.