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Mr. President, I thank Assistant Secretary-General for Political AffairsTaye-Brook Zerihoun and Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonović for their briefings. Lithuania welcomes this public briefing on the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. As other Security Council members who called for this meeting, we believe that the scale and gravity of human rights violations in the DPRK, as detailed in the report of the UN Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry, threaten to have a destabilizing impact on the region and the maintenance of international peace and security.

Over 370 pages of comprehensive exposure, based on extensive research and testimony, make for extremely grim reading. Hundreds of thousands perished, a great deal more physically and psychologically maimed by the regime that, in the words of the Commission, seeks to dominate every aspect of its citizens’ lives and terrorizes them from within. The very idea of a social contract between the state and its citizens is disfigured, with those responsible to protect the rights of North Koreans ruthlessly enforcing almost complete denial of their freedom of thought, religion, expression, information and association. Extermination, enslavement, torture, forced abortions and prolonged starvation – the list seems endless, as no abuse is judged too harsh.

For decades and even when mass starvation was claiming thousands of lives, the state gave precedence to military spending, engaging in a clandestine nuclear weapons programme, buying and producing expensive military hardware. Nuclear weapons tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, as well as provocative ballistic missile and rocket launches have been condemned by the Security Council and recognized as a continuing clear threat to international peace and security. As the Commission of Inquiry noted, the drive to be a nuclear state has had profound consequences on resource allocation, particularly as parts of the population were already food insecure.

The report erases any doubt that crimes against humanity are being committed, conceived and supported by the highest levels of the DPRK government. Political prisoners and their families perish in prison labor camps, deprivation of food is used to control the population, children are stunted by malnutrition, humanitarian access is blocked to most affected regions, and torture is an inseparable part of the interrogation process. Those who manage to escape are often forcibly returned and invariably face persecution, torture, forced abortions and arbitrary detention.

We take note of the indications by the DPRK that it is ready to consider human rights dialogues with international interlocutors, technical cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights and a country visit by the Special Rapporteur. However, such signals should be followed with concrete action, acknowledging existence of human rights violations, allowing unimpeded access to international human rights and humanitarian organizations and starting implementation of recommendations by the Commission of Inquiry.

Yet as the human rights situation in DPRK continues to deteriorate, it is important to make sure that the international community is mindful about its responsibility to protect the population of DPRK, so manifestly and deliberately failed by its own government. In this regard Lithuania welcomes the recent resolution of the UN General Assembly on the situation of human rights in the DPRK, which submits the report of the Commission of Inquiry to the Security Council. We also encourage the Council to follow General Assembly’s recommendation and take appropriate action to ensure accountability, including through consideration of referral of the situation in the DPRK to the International Criminal Court and consideration of the scope for effective targeted sanctions against those who appear to be most responsible for acts that the commission has said may constitute crimes against humanity.

To conclude, Mr. President, let me reiterate the conclusion by the Commission of Inquiry that the crimes against humanity in the DPRK will continue until the policies, institutions and patterns of impunity that lie at their heart remain in place. The Security Council should therefore remain engaged in demanding the DPRK authorities to initiate profound changes through implementation of the recommendations by the Commission of Inquiry without delay. The Council should track progress of such implementation by holding regular briefings of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur to the Security Council.