Song Sang-hyun: "Kim Jong Un, Co-perpetrator of Ukraine War with Putin... Now is the Time to Refer to ICC"

Former ICC President Speaks at Global North Korean Human Rights Conference... Former North Korean Trade Representative in Russia Also Testifies

Former International Criminal Court President Song Sang-hyun [Yonhap News Photo]

(Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Park Soo-yoon and Reporter Kim Hyo-jung = Now is the opportune moment to bring Kim Jong Un, Chairman of North Korea's State Affairs Commission, who supplied weapons to Russia, before the International Criminal Court (ICC), argued former ICC President Song Sang-hyun.

Song made this assertion in his keynote speech materials distributed prior to the '2025 Seoul Global North Korean Human Rights Conference' held at The Plaza Hotel in Jung-gu on the 22nd.

"If the main perpetrator of the Ukraine war is the aggressor Russia, then the North Korean regime, which supplied weapons and ammunition, is at least a complicit offender or an accessory," Song stated, adding, "Now is the time to refer Kim Jong Un to the ICC."

He further commented, "Kim Jong Un's dispatch of combat troops, depending on the evidence gathered, makes him not just a complicit offender but a co-perpetrator with Russian President Vladimir Putin."

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for President Putin in March 2023 on charges of war crimes.

Song explained that while it would be best for Ukraine, the war-affected nation, to directly file a complaint against Kim Jong Un with the ICC, if that is not feasible, the ICC prosecutor could also initiate proceedings ex officio.

He then suggested, "If the current ICC prosecutor refuses and their term ends, the next turn for prosecutor selection is from the Asian continent. It is necessary for South Korea to prepare to nominate and get elected a candidate for the next prosecutor."

Korean writing again on Russian weapons used in Ukraine attack... 'Suntaz-2sin' inscribed on fragments (Seoul=Yonhap News) As claims that Russia is using North Korean weapons continue to emerge, Korean writing has again been discovered on weapons fired by Russia into Ukraine.

Serhiy Bolvinov, head of the investigative department of the Kharkiv regional police in Ukraine, released photographic evidence on his Facebook page on the 14th (local time), stating, "Russia continues to use North Korean weapons in the Kharkiv region." Feb. 16, 2024 [Screenshot from Serhiy Bolvinov's Facebook, Kharkiv Regional Police Department, Ukraine. Reproduction and DB prohibited.]

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Song emphasized the need for thorough preparation, recalling that the ICC prosecutor had previously attempted an ex officio investigation into North Korea, but it fizzled out.

In 2010, then-ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced the initiation of a 'preliminary examination' to determine whether North Korea's shelling of Yeonpyeong Island and the sinking of the Cheonan corvette constituted war crimes.

However, Song stated that this prosecutor appointed a contact person who could not even distinguish between North and South Korea, and merely repeated requests for the submission of data and evidence from the governments of both Koreas without any prior research or preparation. Ultimately, he retired without receiving any response from North Korea.

The '2025 Seoul Global North Korean Human Rights Conference,' jointly hosted by the North Korean Human Rights Private Organizations Council and the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) of the United States, brought together domestic and international North Korean human rights experts, activists, and defectors to shed light on the human rights situation in North Korea and explore future directions for the North Korean human rights movement.

During the conference, Kim Kang, who defected after serving as deputy representative of the North Korean Trade Representative Office at the North Korean Embassy in Russia and defected in 2016, made his first public testimony.

Kim testified that his aunt suffered collective punishment for secretly distributing the Bible, which led to his defection, saying, "I was a loyalist systematically cultivated by the North Korean authorities, but despite that, I could not comprehend the North Korean authorities' system of collective punishment."

He revealed, "There are currently about 70 to 80 North Korean labor dispatch companies in Russia, and approximately 28,000 North Korean laborers are spread across Russia, being forced to work over 16 hours a day in construction sites, garment factories, and seafood processing plants." Yonhap News

Kim Kang, former Deputy Representative of the North Korean Mission in Russia, speaks at the 2025 Seoul Global North Korean Human Rights Conference held at The Plaza Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul on October 22nd. (Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Ryu Young-seok = 2025.10.22 ondol@yna.co.kr