By Mario Villar
United Nations, Dec 23 (IANS/EFE): For the first time, and despite opposition from China and Russia, the UN Security Council revealed the human rights situation in North Korea, and the horrors inflicted for decades on the country's population by the Kim family regime.
"Rarely has such an extensive charge-sheet of international crimes been brought to this Council's attention," said UN Assistant Secretary General Ivan Simonovic Monday.
Presenting the key points of the report on human rights violations in North Korea published this year by UN officials, the Croatian diplomat spoke of "widespread and systematic" crimes carried out as a "deliberate policy" from the "highest levels of the government".
"In many cases, they constituted crimes against humanity," he said, explaining that there is evidence of murder, slavery, torture, rape and other serious abuses against people prompted by political, religious, racial and gender reasons.
According to the UN commission of experts, hundreds of thousands of people have died during the last 50 years in North Korean prison camps which currently hold between 80,000 and 120,000 inmates.
The human rights situation in North Korea was brought before the highest decision-making body of the UN on the initiative of 10 of its 15 members.
Monday's debate was held despite opposition from China, North Korea's main ally, which unsuccessfully tried to stop the initiative with a vote which was backed only by Russia.
China's representative, Liu Jieyi, said the Security Council was not the forum to discuss human rights issues, warning that the debate could cause an escalation of tension in the Korean peninsula.
Several speakers supported the possibility of referring the crimes to the International Criminal Court (ICC) a move which could ultimately force North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to appear before the international body in The Hague, Netherlands.
However, such a scenario seems unlikely with China showing its readiness to veto and block any document that tries to move the case in that direction.
The North Korean regime, which has tried to show some cooperation with the UN in recent months in the face of the threat of the ICC, boycotted Monday's event.