Why Doesn’t the ICC Put Out a Warrant for Kim Jong-un?

This is a really good question considering the multiple deadly provocations that North Korea has launched against South Korea. Basically a warrant will not be issued because no state wants to bring it up and investigators cannot get into North Korea to investigate any accusations:

The International Criminal Court’s issuing of an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin is “one of the most courageous steps taken” and “one that would eventually lead to accountability,” according to the war crimes court’s former president Hon. Song Sang-hyun.

However, bringing similar actions of international justice against North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un would be far more challenging, according to the three-term ICC judge. (…..)

On whether the leader of North Korea can be subject to ICC actions like Putin, Song said there had been an earlier attempt that wound up closing before the investigation could go forward.

In 2010, an investigation had opened against his predecessor and father Kim Jong-il by then-ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. His office said at the time it was looking into two 2010 provocations by North Korea — the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island near the maritime border and the sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean military vessel. The investigation closed the following year in 2011 with his death.

Song said the investigation of the second-generation Kim was launched ex-officio by the ICC prosecutor and then authorized by the Court’s pre-trial chamber.

“The problem is it wasn’t feasible for our prosecutors to enter North Korea to conduct the necessary investigation. I remember we were trying to seek cooperation from China, which also would not have gone well,” he said. (……)

Song is skeptical about whether the ICC’s jurisdiction can reach Kim.

Aside from an ICC prosecutor deciding to pursue a case, as Moreno-Ocampo had done, the two other ways that an ICC investigation can be initiated are through a referral from the UN Security Council or a complaint by a state party. Here is where the challenge lies for an investigation of North Korea, he said.

He said while he had seen numerous complaints against the North Korean leader submitted by individuals and organizations during his time as the Court’s judge and president, most of them were dismissed.

“Only a state party can bring a case to the Court,” he explained.

He said that given the state of things, he believes it’s improbable that a state party government would file a complaint against Kim Jong-un.

“I don’t think the South Korean government would, much less the governments of North Korea’s other neighbors like China or Japan,” he said.

Korea Herald

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