Holding N. Korea regime to account 'paramount': UN envoy

A UN investigator today ruled out any compromise on efforts to have North Korea answer formal charges of crimes against humanity, saying holding the regime to account, including supreme leader Kim Jong-Un, was "paramount".
Marzuki Darusman, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in the North, also stressed that Kim's refusal to halt human rights atrocities instigated by previous regimes would make him legally "complicit" in such crimes.
A UN General Assembly is expected to vote next week on a resolution -- drafted by the EU and Japan -- that recommends referring North Korea's leadership to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.

The resolution followed a comprehensive UN inquiry, based on testimony of North Korean exiles, that detailed a vast network of prison camps and documented cases of torture, rape, murder and enslavement.
Pyongyang has launched a diplomatic campaign to have key provisions of the resolution scrapped, and even offered Darusman a full-fledged visit if clauses on Kim's accountability and referral to the ICC are dropped.
"Let me be very clear," Darusman told reporters in Seoul. "Achieving accountability is paramount."

"At no time, more than now, is it so important to firmly keep the line," he added.
Darusman, who was on the three-member UN Commission of Inquiry, said the "massive" rights violations it documented included those committed before Kim came to power following the death of his father, Kim Jong-Il, in December 2011.

"But the nature of these crimes is ongoing," Darusman said.
"Having been informed of these violations, and no action being taken, renders (Kim Jong-Un) culpable of complicity in crimes against humanity," he said.
Rights abuses by North Korea have been known about for years, but the inquiry's exhaustive report carried the UN stamp of authority and has put Pyongyang under unprecedented pressure, which would only intensify further if the ICC were to take up the case.
It is especially sensitive to the prospect of Kim Jong-Un being personally inducted, even if he would never willingly appear before the court.
Referral to the ICC requires the approval of the UN Security Council, which China -- North Korea's main ally and diplomatic protector -- would likely veto.

"It would not be a surprise," Darusman acknowledged.
North Korea's recent surprise release of two jailed American citizens was widely seen as part of Pyongyang's campaign to escape the corner it has been forced into by the pending UN resolution.