Russia has waived about $10 billion of North Korean debt in exchange for a gas pipeline through the secretive country to South Korea.

The Russian government in Moscow ratified an agreement that has been under negotiation since 2012, writing off all but $1.09 billion of North Korea’s debt. The remainder must now be paid over the next 20 years, in equal instalments every six months.

Russia's deputy finance minister Sergei Storchak has told Russian reporters that the money will fund mutually beneficial projects in North Korea, such as a gas pipeline and a railway to South Korea.

Russia's state-owned natural gas producer, Gazprom, has orchestrated the engineering plans. Gazprom wants the pipeline to ship 10 billion cubic metres of gas per year.

The giant nation is moving away from long-standing gas deals with parts of Europe and Asia sympathetic to Western and democratic ideals.

In turn, many European countries are looking to stop buying Russian gas.

China and Russia are expected to announce a series of gas supplies deal and other mutual projects this year, the result of more than ten years of negotiation.

Russia may be willing to ignore the gross atrocities being perpetrated in North Korea, but Former Australian High Court judge Michael Kirby and the UN Security Council have condemned the nation.

There is now a push to bring the North Korean ruling party before the International Criminal Court (ICC) to answer for its treatment of citizens.

A UN inquiry recently catalogued and published details of massive human rights violations in North Korea, which it says amount to crimes against humanity.

“Only the Security Council can set in train immediate, impartial and just action to secure accountability, fulfil the responsibility to protect, put human rights right and stop grave human rights violations from undermining peace and security,” Mr Kirby has told the ABC.

US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power recently added to the push, saying countries can no longer ignore the “tragic human rights situation in North Korea.”

“We heard directly from the authors of a thorough, objective and credible UN report, and from victims of North Korean atrocities themselves,” she said.

“These first-hand accounts - horrific stories of torture, rape, forced abortions and forced infanticide, extermination and murder - paint a chilling picture of the regime's systematic and remorseless repression of its citizens.”

Many consider the inaction of the international community over the reprehensible state of North Korea to be a growing embarrassment, as nations fear the reprise of countries including China if any action was taken.

China has rejected the content of the 372-page UN report detailing hundreds of cases from firsthand accounts as “divorced from reality”.