AS DELIVERED

Thank you, Chairperson.

The United States thanks the European Union and Japan for introducing a strong resolution that emphasizes the importance of accountability for human rights violations and abuses committed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The United States is pleased to co-sponsor this resolution.

The regime in the DPRK remains among the world’s most egregious violators of human rights. The UN Commission of Inquiry’s meticulous account of the human rights violations and abuses committed by the regime is harrowing and continues to inform our understanding of the situation in the DPRK today. The COI details human rights violations and abuses that it describes as “systematic, widespread, and gross,” including those involving “extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender groups, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.”

With this resolution, the international community will again send a clear message to the DPRK regime that human rights violations and abuses must stop and that those responsible should be held accountable.

With regard to this resolution’s reference to International Criminal Court, we refer delegations to our ‎separate U.S. statement under Agenda Item 74.

Thank you, Chairperson.

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