Three months have passed since a U.N. commission of inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea produced a robust and lengthy report systematically detailing a litany of horrific charges, and recommending that the U.N. refer the case to the International Criminal Court.

Since this referral is unlikely to happen, due to the fact that China, an ally of North Korea, holds a Security Council veto, lawmakers are looking for other ways to hold the North Korean government accountable for its crimes. 

One Anglo-American law firm, Hogan Lovells, recently published a pro bono legal opinion, in which it reaffirmed that gross human rights violations, and even crimes against humanity, had been committed in North Korea. 

But where the U.N. report stopped short of accusing North Korea of genocide, Hogan Lovells stated that there may be grounds for making that assertion against North Korea, as the government systematically targets Christians and those deemed to be in the "hostile class" antagonistic to the state. 

The Hogan Lovells report was timed for a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs regarding Human Rights Abuses and Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea.

SOURCE: The Wall street Journal