How on earth have we gotten this far? I am not being an alarmist when I say that what is happening in North Korea at this very moment is the closest thing to a modern day Holocaust that our generation has seen. Prison camps are being filled. Religious and political oppression runs rampant. State mandated starvation is ongoing. The rejection of basic human rights is an integral and primary feature of the totalitarian regime in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
    A report of the independent United Nations Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the DPRK was released on Feb. 17. The findings are chilling, shocking and utterly abhorrent. For years, the discussions of the brutalities and barbarism that occur in North Korea have experienced the normal ebb and flow of typical news cycles. These conditions are atypical. Eighty public testimonies and 240 interviews in the report attest to the harsh reality of life in North Korea.
   On the prison camps, the report states, “inmate population has been gradually eliminated through deliberate starvation, forced labor, executions, torture, rape and the denial of reproductive rights enforced through punishment, forced abortion and infanticide.” It goes on to mention deliberate starvation is used to control and punish the populations in the detention facilities. These incidents are but a drop in the bucket compared to the overall context of what happens.
    As one would expect, the North Korean regime chose not to cooperate with the investigation, which itself implies guilt.  When the study was commissioned, the regime released a statement saying they “totally and categorically reject the commission inquiry.” The audacity of the regime to “totally reject and disregard” the U.N. resolution, which authorized the report, lends itself to just how fundamentally wicked and appalling the leaders of this nation are. Kim Jong-un, the 31-year-old supreme leader with a boyish face and a widely recognized pathetic political perception, said he considered the execution of his uncle a success because “party and revolutionary ranks were further consolidated and our single-hearted unity was solidified.” To compound the world’s problem, the DPRK actively seeks more advanced nuclear capability. If the head of state of a major nation has the nerve to oppress, torture and kill his uncle and innocents, how can the global community allow that nation to be a nuclear state?
    How long can the world continue to ignore the North Korean problem? Its leader is, at best, unstable and unpredictable and, at worst, dangerous and threatening. The citizens of the DPRK are being slaughtered. The global community must act. The U.N. must follow through with action on its report. In a Feb. 18 news release, Navi Pillay, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said, “its findings need to be treated with the greatest urgency, as they suggest that crimes against humanity of an unimaginable scale continue to be committed in the DPRK.” The independent Commission of Inquiry will present its report to the 47 member states of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 17.  
    These state sponsored crimes against humanity have no place in our world. Those who carry out these crimes against humanity need to answer for their actions. As the leader of the free world, can the United States continue to ignore the evil that permeates throughout even the most rudimentary of human rights? If the U.N. fails to act, where does that leave us?
  Edmund Burke, a political theorist an member of Britain’s House of Commons, once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.” If the U.N. is incapable of invoking change, I believe the U.S. has a moral obligation to do so. When dealing with a situation of this magnitude, all options should be on the table. The U.N. should consider a multilateral humanitarian, diplomatic, covert and military approach that demands answers. Ramping up the pressure on China to reign in its Southeast Asian counterpart should also be encouraged. If you are unconvinced, consider the consequences 50 years from now if we do nothing. Are we turning a blind eye to a modern-day Auschwitz?