GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations human rights investigator recommended an international strategy on Monday to press North Korea to clarify the fate of foreign nationals abducted over decades, mainly from South Korea and Japan.

Mr Marzuki Darusman, an independent expert, laid out the strategy in a report to the UN Human Rights Council saying that the International Criminal Court (ICC) was "competent for prosecuting these perpetrators".

"The strategy aims at eventually shedding light on all cases of abductions and enforced disappearances allegedly committed by agents from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," he said.