The United Nations (UN) panel on Tuesday voted to address North Korea's crimes against humanity by backing the push of more than 100 countries to send Kim Jong Un to the International Criminal Court.

The case, however, faces a setback as China and Russia oppose the move to hold Kim responsible for the allegations. The votes that call on the UN Security Council to address the issue in order to expose the North Korean leader might not succeed.

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China and Russia are both veto-wielding members of the UN and are among the 19 countries that opposed the move while 55 others withdrew.

In spite of this, there are still 111 leaders that voted in favor of the resolution that was initiated by the European Union (EU) and Japan. The main goal of the resolution was to expose Kim and his atrocities, which are said to be done to clean up the image of the communist country.

According to critics, the release of American citizens namely Matthew Todd Miller and Kenneth Bae, who were held behind bars in Pyongyang, North Korea due to unknown crimes and reasons against the Kim government, was said to be a possible attempt of the Kim regime to discourage other world leaders to support the said resolution.

The resolution produced by the EU and Japan was presented in a 400-page report back in February this year and they have detailed the abuses that the government committed against their prisoners. Jailed individuals, who are around 120,000, are reportedly being mistreated beyond horror.

The report was compiled after interviewing North Korean defectors who detailed that some people were being burned, hung upside down then beaten, starved and were told that their loved ones have been tortured.

The report also included the mass murders, enslavement, rape, torture, sexual violence and even forced abortions done to their prisoners by the Kim government.

According to the Human Rights Watch senior counsel Parem-Preet Singh, the resolution is a strong voice that proves the international community wants to see reform implemented in Pyongyang.

TagsUN, North Korea, human rights crimes, ICC, Torture, prisoners, Russia