Special to WorldTribune.com

By John J. Metzler

UNITED NATIONS — It’s one of the tougher warnings the world community has sent to the neo-Stalinist regime in North Korea; a detailed condemnation of widespread human rights abuses in the reclusive communist country and, as significantly, a call that the Case and the regime leadership be eventually referred to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

The vote in the UN’s Third Committee (Political) sent a resounding message; 111 in favor, 19 against, and 55 abstentions.

Supporting the resolution were the Americans, European Union countries, South Korea, Japan and other democracies. Opposition came from the DPRK’s ideological comrades such as China, Cuba, Russia, and Venezuela along with the usual suspects as Myanmar (Burma), Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe. The abstentions were cast by India, Indonesia, and South Africa.

Though the vote is not legally binding, the measure sends a strong political message to Pyongyang. This is the tenth year a vote on DRRK human rights has been held.

A tough European Union/Japanese draft resolution co-sponsored by 62 other countries including the USA, South Korea and Australia sets in motion a process which while condemning the quaintly titled Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) , equally opens the door to possible prosecution of the Pyongyang rulers in the ICC.

“Finally, the UN has sent a message today that North Korean rulers who starve and enslave their own people must be held accountable,” opined Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, a Geneva based human rights watchdog.

First however, and this is the key, the case must pass the UN Security Council where such a censure would likely be vetoed by Mainland China.

The resolution was based on a powerful 400 page human rights report earlier this year in which the North Korean regime was condemned chapter and verse for wide ranging and systematic civil and human rights abuses, “gulag style” forced labor camps, starvation and religious persecution.

The UN report stated that the human rights abuses in the DPRK, “exceeds all others in duration, intensity and horror.”

Australian jurist Michael Kirby, who chaired the earlier report described the UN vote “as an important step in the defense of human rights.” Judge Kirby applauded the move by the UN ‘s Third Committee to refer the case to the Security Council.

A British Foreign Office Minister stated succinctly, “The international spotlight is on the regime in Pyongyang as never before.”

Italy, speaking on behalf of the European Union, added that the rights commission “underlined the pervasive culture of impunity and the lack of accountability for the perpetrators and found that a number of these human rights violations may amount to crimes against humanity.”

Naturally the North Koreans don’t quite don’t see it that way. In recent weeks the DPRK’s diplomats have been hinting at and offering a number of small political carrots to have avoided this stick.

DPRK released a number of imprisoned American civilians, they have strongly hinted to a UN human rights rapporteur that they may allow an actual visit to their magical Marxist kingdom by UN human rights officials, and they would pursue a political thaw with South Korea.

A particular issue according to UN officials, was that North Korean diplomats repeatedly asked that references and referrals to the ICC be deleted from the resolution’s text.

In other words, allowing any ICC criminal probe of leader Kim Jong-Un and members of his ruling clique could cause the DPRK to go ballistic.

The stick was as predictable; there were strong hints by the North Korean team that there could be yet another nuclear test. DPRK diplomat Choe Myong-Nam warned that the measure passed by the UN, “is compelling us not to refrain any further from conducting nuclear tests.”

But hold on, even if the case were to before the fifteen member Security Council it’s a near certainty that the People’s Republic of China and probably Russia will veto any measure to send a specific motion to the ICC. The Kim family Marxist Monarchy may be shielded from the Security Council, but not in the long run from the poignant probability of regime collapse.

John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for WorldTribune.com. He is the author of “Divided Dynamism The Diplomacy of Separated Nations; Germany; Korea, China”, 2014