DHAKA: US Secretary of State John Kerry Tuesday denounced human rights abuse in North Korea and called on Pyongyang to shut down its penal colonies riddled with ‘barbarity and inhumanity’.

‘You should close those camps, you should shut this evil system down,’ Kerry said at an unprecedented event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, reports The Straits Times.

In one of the most comprehensive reports to date, a UN commission of inquiry into the North's rights detailed a wide range of systemic abuses including murder, enslavement and torture.

The commission, in findings published in February, concluded that many of the violations constituted crimes against humanity and suggested they could be placed before the International Criminal Court.

BDST: 2109 HRS, SEP 23, 2014