After years of being overshadowed by the nuclear issue, activists working to bring North Korean human rights violations to light consider the UN Commission of Inquiry’s report on the subject an important step.

They cautioned, however, that it would not be the last step needed.

The international community has known of alleged human rights violations in North Korea for some time. In every year since its creation in 1973, the Freedom in the World index, an international ranking of freedom in countries around the world published by the NGO Freedom House, has ranked the DPRK last. Over the last two