Very little has been done to break down and get rid of North Korea's deadly prison camps. For decades now, the network of hidden camps has been scattered around rural parts of the Korean peninsula, and while we have satellite footage proving their existence, intervening with the DPRK to help improve their human rights situation is a very risky proposition.
After years of doing nothing, the UN has decided to step up and see if North Korea will budge. This past spring, the UN has created a new "Commission of Inquiry" committee to take a closer look at the blatant human rights violations occurring in the hermit kingdom. The committee consists of three judges and diplomats from Australia, Indonesia, and Serbia. (source) Their goal is to pressure the Security Council into referring North Korea to the ICC (International Crime Court), and to charge their leaders with massive human rights violations.
The ICC is a high-profile authority who's job is to prosecute people for war crimes and major crimes against humanity. The main court is based in The Netherlands, but their proceedings can take place almost anywhere. They are a relatively young organization - created in 2002, established by the Rome Statute treaty. The idea is that an inquiry from the ICC will lead to a shutdown of North Korea's entire network of gulags.
Defectors who've managed to escape from the camps have provided growing amounts of information regarding the kind of atrocities committed inside camp borders. There are an estimated 100,000 unnatural deaths that occur in the camps every year.
This may not turn out very well for Pyongyang. The entire regime (not just the prison camps) will end up being investigated for multiple kinds of human rights violations.
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