UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- In a non-binding vote Thursday, the United Nations General Assembly voted to refer charges of crimes against humanity by North Korea to the International Criminal Court.
The 116-20 vote, with over 50 abstentions, has little bearing on the charges, except that the resolution will be forwarded to the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to send the matter to the Court. A meeting to discuss the resolution, for the first time, is scheduled for Monday, but Russia and China are likely to vote against it.
The vote in the General Assembly came after a 400-page U.N. Commission of Inquiry Report of Human Rights report in February which detailed torture and human rights violations in North Korea.
North Korea's envoy to the General Assembly said the resolution "does not reflect the reality on the ground," adding a U.S. Senate report on the CIA's interrogation procedures after Sept. 11, 2001, should also be the subject of investigation.
Last week, Ja Song-nam, North Korea's U.N. ambassador, sent a letter to the President of the Security Council, calling the accounts in the Senate report "the gravest human rights violations in the world" and examples of "brutal medieval torture."
Despite its symbolic standing, the General Assembly vote can be regarded as an indicator of world opinion. At the same meeting, resolutions condemning the human rights records of Iran and Syria were also passed.
