A UN-mandated Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) will hold its latest round of public hearings in Washington, DC, this Thursday and Friday.

They follow previous hearings held in London, Seoul and Tokyo, where North Koreans who have left their homeland detailed the heart-wrenching violations they suffered in the country’s detention centres or even as far back as the Korean War in the early 1950s.

Commission members were in New York on Tuesday to brief the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural issues.

Dianne Penn caught up with Michael Kirby, a retired judge from Australia who is the Commission’s chairman.

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