The European Union and Japan are asking the United Nations to press for war crimes prosecutions in North Korea following a report that laid bare Pyongyang's brutality, according to a draft resolution circulating yesterday.

The measure to be presented to the UN General Assembly in the coming weeks would also ask the Security Council to consider targeted sanctions against North Korean leaders 'who appear to be most responsible for crimes against humanity."

The draft resolution, which was obtained by AFP, draws heavily from a UN rights inquiry released in February that revealed a vast network of prison camps and documented cases of torture, enslavement, rape and forced abortions among other viola-