A UN panel has called for atrocities in North Korea to be judged by the International Criminal Court, telling the country’s leader Kim Jong Un that he may be among those facing indictment.

“Systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed by [North Korea], its institutions and officials,” the UN commission of inquiry said in a report yesterday. The panel urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation to the ICC. “In many instances, the violations of human rights found by the commission constitute crimes against humanity,” it concluded.

The establishment of the commission by the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council in March last year was an unprecedented assertion of pressure on North Korea over its longstanding human rights violations. The commission presented its findings in Geneva in a 372-page report, after hearing testimony from more than 320 witnesses, including former inmates of North Korea’s political prison camps.