A UN HRC Commission of Inquiry report will state that crimes against humanity have been committed in North Korea and will call for the International Criminal Court to open an investigation, says the Associated Press having seen a leaked report.
A Commission of Inquiry, established by the United Nations Human Rights Council in March 2013, gives,
"reasonable grounds … to merit a criminal investigation by a competent national or international organ of justice".
Whilst North Korea is not a signatory to the Rome Statute and thus not a signatory to the ICC, Michael Kirby, the retired Australian judge, who headed the commission has previously argued that exceptional cases can be referred over by the UN Security Council.
An unnamed spokesman for North Korea's U.N. Mission told the AP,
"We totally reject the unfounded findings of the Commission of Inquiry regarding crimes against humanity. We will never accept that."
See reports from the AP here and the Guardian here.
The leaked findings come as US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Chinese officials urging them to take a tougher stance of North Korea. Before he departed, Kerry told reporters,
“My instructions from President Obama are to sit with the Chinese leadership and make the case that we cannot wait till the North has either gone so much further in its program that it’s even more complicated to deal with, or created a provocation.”