UN rights expert seeks reminder for North Korean chiefs

Video footage showed a celebratory concert held in North Korea after a recent rocket launch.

North Korea has opened an exhibition of Kimjongilia – a flower named after the country’s late leader Kim Jong Il – at Pyongyang’s Kimilsungia and Kimjongilia Exhibition Hall to celebrate the 74th anniversary of Kim’s birth.

Only the U.N. Security Council can involve the court, but North Korea’s sole ally, China, a veto-wielding member of the top U.N. body, has repeatedly rejected calls for the Security Council to tackle human rights in North Korea.

She called for support for her government amid a divide in South Korea about its tough response to North Korea.

Some analysts have said that without Kaesong as leverage, South Korea’s ability to influence change in the North has now evaporated.

North Korean State Television said in a report on the anniversary celebrations that the “Dear Leader”, born in 1942, was able to turn North Korea into a power assuring the country’s sovereignty against “imperialist forces”, including the US, EFE news reported.

The former North Korean leader, father of current leader Kim Jong-un, died of heart failure in December 2011, after his iron-fist rule and pursuit of nuclear weapons stoked regional tensions for more than a decade.

Marusman made the call in a 13-page report made public Monday ahead of a review of North Korea’s rights record by the Geneva-based HRC as part of its session beginning February 29. Instead, U.S. dollars were paid to the North Korean government, which siphoned off most of the money and paid only what it wanted to the employees in North Korean currency and store vouchers, according to a statement from Seoul’s’ Unification Ministry on Sunday.

Earlier this month, North Korea ignored repeated worldwide warnings and launched what it said was an Earth observation satellite aboard a rocket. Washington, Seoul and others view the launch as a prohibited test of missile technology and are pushing for stronger sanctions against the regime.

Last week Pyongyang expelled all South Korean workers from the jointly run factory park in the North and put the area under military control, in retaliation for Seoul’s decision to suspend operations there.