Skip to main content

Families of missing Japanese to urge prosecution of North Korean leader at Hague court

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (File/AP Photo)
The families of Japanese abducted by North Korea, and those believed to have been taken, will urge the International Criminal Court to prosecute the North’s leader, saying the lack of information about their loved ones is a human rights abuse.
North Korea admitted in 2002 it had kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies, and five of them returned to Japan. Tokyo suspects that hundreds more may have been taken.
Eight people, including Teruaki Masumoto, whose sister Rumiko is said by North Korea to have died, will travel to The Hague to urge the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for human rights abuses because of his refusal to provide information about their family members.
The group will present a petition requesting investigation into the disappearances as a case of crimes against humanity to raise international attention about the issue, said Kazuhiro Araki, who heads a support group for families of the missing.
“Right now, with the Olympics, South Korea is really making a connection with the North, which we did not expect,” Araki said, referring to talks between the two Koreas over the winter Olympics starting next month that have led to a thaw in cross-border ties. “So we believe this will bring a lot of attention to Japan’s different situation,” he said.
North Korea has repeatedly pledged to reopen investigations into the fate of all missing Japanese, only to backtrack on those promises later.
Araki acknowledged that the move would be mostly symbolic but said it was still valuable. “Arresting Kim Jong Un and bringing him in would be rather difficult, but it’s extremely important to show that there are human rights abuses taking place,” he said.
One of those traveling to The Hague is Misa Morimoto, whose identical twin sister – so alike that they could swap classrooms and fool their high school teachers – vanished when they were 20 and is believed to have been abducted by Pyongyang.
“As her family member, I want to do everything I possibly can,” Morimoto said in an email.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Over 1 lakh illegal immigrants arrested in US in 2017

On January 25, Trump issued an executive order to set forth the Administration’s immigration enforcement and removal priorities. (Representational Image) The US authorities have arrested 143,470 illegal immigrants this year, according to a latest report. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in its annual report that it has made 143,470 administrative arrests in fiscal year 2017, increasing 30 per cent Year-on-Year, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. An administrative arrest is the arrest of an alien for a civil violation of the immigration laws, which is subsequently adjudicated by an immigration judge or through other administrative processes. Of the total arrests, 110,568 occurred after January 20, which is a 42 per cent increase over the same time period last year, according to the report. US President Donald Trump took the oath of office on January 20 this year. On January 25, Trump issued an executive order to set forth the Administration’s immigrat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Canada debates new harassment legislation amid #MeToo storm

We can afford to do more for people who need it by doing less for people who don’t: Trudeau’s message (Photo Source: Reuters) Canada’s parliament began debate on Monday on new legislation to tighten workplace harassment rules, including those governing politicians, as allegations of sexual misconduct mounted against lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum. The bill, introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in November, gained a new prominence after a federal cabinet minister and two provincial party leaders stepped down last week after being accused of inappropriate behavior. While the proposed law will govern all federal workplaces, including private businesses, the environment among political staffers in Ottawa was in focus as the #MeToo social media movement gained momentum in Canada. “It clearly is a crisis in this workplace,” Employment Minister Patty Hajdu told reporters outside the House of Commons. “We talk a lot about getting wom...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trump administration drops Obama-era easing of marijuana prosecutions

The US Justice Department on Thursday rescinded an Obama administration policy that had eased enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states that legalized the drug, instead giving federal prosecutors wide latitude to pursue criminal charges. The action by Attorney General Jeff Sessions could have damaging consequences for the burgeoning marijuana industry in the six states including California and Colorado that have legalized the drug for recreational use, plus dozens of others that permit medicinal use. Justice Department officials declined to say whether they might take legal action against those states, saying further steps were “still under consideration.” Federal law still prohibits marijuana even as some states move to legalize it. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said President Donald Trump’s top priority was enforcing federal law “whether it’s marijuana or immigration.” The policy change, detailed by Sessions in a one-page memo to federal prosecutors nationwid...
Post a Comment
Read more