“[North Korea] is a human paradise in which Jesus would have nothing to do even if he came,” according to an article on North Korea’s state-run website. Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, it adds, embraces his people in “ever shining arms of eternal life and happiness.”

But the United Nations Human Rights Council disagrees, as evidenced by a report filed recently describing prison camps throughout the nation that rival those of Hitler and Stalin in their scope and brutality. On Friday, the council called for action to be taken against North Korea, submitting a resolution which, if successful, would hold North Korean government officials liable to arrest outside their borders. According to World Magazine, “Thirty member nations of the Human Rights Council voted in favor the resolution, and 11 abstained. China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, Vietnam and Venezuela voted against it.”

North Korea’s United Nations ambassador So Se Pyong told the council, “In [North Korea] we have a proverb saying ‘Mind your own business.’ One needs to see his or her face in the mirror to check how nasty it is before talking about the others.”

In situations such as these, minding our own business would be a crime, Mr. Pyong. China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, Vietnam and Venezuela are wrong in their treatment of their citizens. Of course there are times when minding our own business is exactly what we ought to do. There are times we didn’t mind our own business and ought to have. We cannot police the world — any organization with power and authority to do so is too powerful and too authoritative and will inevitably become more corrupt than those it polices. This, however, is one of those instances when it is wrong not to act: many are calling it “the worst human tragedy in the world.” Starvation is rampant. Timothy Kang, who escaped from the prisons, described prisoners that looked like “skeletons barely covered with skin.” Inmates catch rats and snakes and ask their guards for permission to eat them. Some mothers are malnourished to the point where they cannot feed their infants, and the babies die. Forced abortions and infanticide is common. One female inmate was raped by a platoon leader; after the baby was born, the mother and her newborn were locked in a detention house. The mother soon went missing. The infant was fed to dogs. These and numerous other atrocities have been reported by over 300 escaped witnesses. In light of this, we are obliged to act.

“Thou shalt not kill” does not only forbid: by implication, it demands. It requires that we do all we lawfully can to preserve life. The United Nations must recognize this and take action, or it will become complicit in the crimes. Now that our knowledge of crimes we have guessed at for decades is certain, failure to intervene is tacit approval. To know what is happening, to be able to intervene, and then to abdicate this responsibility is to be guilty of murder.