North Korea no different under Kim, HRW says

BANGKOK, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch said Tuesday any suggestion North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was more of a moderate than his predecessors was misguided.

"Kim Jong Un has picked up where his father and grandfather left off, by overseeing a system of public executions, extensive political prison camps, and brutal forced labor," Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Tuesday from Thailand.

Robertson said Kim's administration is tightening its control over North Korean civilians by making it a more difficult for people to leave the country. Their doing so may reveal North Korea's rampant human rights abuses, he said.

Human Rights Watch said Kim's government is carrying on with systemic collective punishment against generations of families accused of working against state interests. Alleged perpetrators are sent to prison camps where they're subjected to forced starvation and torture by prison guards.

Robertson said Kim was educated at a Western university but hasn't abandoned the repressive policies of his predecessors.

"Human rights need to be front and center in all international dealings with North Korea, starting with demanding accountability for crimes against humanity," he said.

A report from a U.N. commission of inquiry on North Korea is due out in March.