A group of survivors of North Korean prison camps urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Thursday to set up an inquiry into the North's deadly shelling of a South Korean island.
Free the NK Gulag urged Ban to use his authority to open an investigation into the deadly attack, calling it "aggression, a war crime and a crime against humanity under international law".
The North's bombardment on November 23 of Yeonpyeong island near the disputed sea border killed two civilians and two marines and destroyed 29 homes, sharply raising tensions.
"We, the survivors of the political prison camps who were once the slaves of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il's regime… cannot be silent about North Korea's brutality, which seeks to swallow the freedom of 50 million South Koreans," the group said in a statement.
Freedom House, a US watchdog, estimated in its 2007 report that about 200,000 prisoners were held in camps in the hardline communist state, which the Kim dynasty has ruled with an iron fist since 1948.
The group members, calling themselves "the greatest victims of Kim Jong-Il's regime", denounced Pyongyang for exerting its power "based on the sacrifice and bloodshed of innocent North Koreans" and committing "crimes against humanity to maintain its regime.
"We once more respectfully request the United Nations' just decision on a fact-finding investigation and condemnation on North Korea's military provocation on Yeonpyeong island," said the statement.
Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, has condemned the attack and called for restraint by both sides.
The North's ally China has blocked efforts by other nations to obtain UN Security Council condemnation of Pyongyang over its shelling and new nuclear activities, diplomats say.
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