The United Nations Security Council is to hold its first ever meeting to discuss "unspeakable atrocities" and "grave human rights violations" allegedly being carried out in North Korea.
The 15-member council, which includes the UK, the US, China and Russia, will discuss whether North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un should be referred to the International Criminal Court for "crimes against humanity".
The US Ambassador to the UN welcomed the meeting.
Samantha Power said: "The human rights violations in North Korea are among the worst in the world. They are widespread. They are systematic."
She added: "Given the threat they pose to peace and security, they have been going on outside the scrutiny of the UN Security Council for far too long."
The meeting was called following an unprecedented UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report, published in February, catalogued a list of crimes which it said were "widespread and systematic" and "unparalleled in the modern world".
The COI, chaired by retired Australian judge Michael Kirby, sat through witnesses' testimony from scores of North Korean defectors who described their lives inside the country.
The report lists murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortion, sexual violence, forcible transfers and forced disappearances.
Mr Kirby said there were "many parallels" between the evidence he heard and crimes committed by the Nazis in World War Two. He said the international community could not claim, as it did with the Nazis, that they were unaware of the crimes.
"Now the international community does know. There will be no excusing a failure of action because we didn't know. It's too long now. The suffering and the tears of the people of North Korea demand action," he said.
It is not yet clear whether the Security Council will now also discuss the hacking of Sony Pictures following the announcement by US President Barack Obama that North Korea was responsible.
The UN meeting comes as Sky News has filmed rare pictures across the Chinese border into North Korea. The images demonstrate the poverty inside the country and the degree to which China cooperates with its old ally.
At the border town of Ji’an only a narrow river separates China with North Korea. Looking across, guard towers were visible every few hundred metres.
Behind the towers, North Koreans could be seen in surroundings which resembled a different century; everyone on foot or on bicycles, people carrying firewood, oxen pulling carts through the snow.
On the Chinese side of the border, signs warned people against helping defectors seen crossing the river.
Christian communities are credited with supporting some who manage the escape. But at one church a pastor said that while he was aware of the abuses taking place inside North Korea, he was unable to do anything because his church relied on the support of the Chinese government.
China and Russia both sit on the UN Security Council and as North Korea's allies, both opposed this week's meeting. As permanent members, they are likely to use their power of veto to prevent Mr Kim from being sent to the International Criminal Court.
The North Korean government has dismissed the UN report, describing the defectors whose testimony makes up the report as "scum" and the report itself as "fabricated, peppered with misinformation".
