Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to raise the implementation of the recommendations in the report by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea published on 7 February 2014, at the UN Human Rights Council; and in particular, the recommendation that the situation in North Korea should be referred to the International Criminal Court.

The UK is clear there must be no impunity for the most serious international crimes. We welcome and support the Human Rights Council resolution on human rights in North Korea which stresses the importance of following up recommendations from the UN Commission of Inquiry Report on Human Rights in the DPRK, and provides the basis for further work on a credible framework for accountability for human rights violations in the country. North Korea is not a State Party to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and so a referral of the situation in the DPRK could be made only by the UN Security Council in this instance. The international community has a responsibility to respond to human rights violations in North Korea and the UK continues to press annual debate on the DPRK's human rights issues in the UN Security Council.