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| ▲ This photo, provided by the Transitional Justice Working Group on Oct. 31, 2024, show the cover image of its report titled Existing "Nowhere": Looking into North Korea's Crime of Enforced Disappearance. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
N Korea-enforced disappearances
N. Korea's state security ministry key 'perpetrator' of enforced disappearances: report
SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's state security ministry is a key perpetrator of North Korea's enforced disappearances, with nearly 40 percent of such disappearances occurring due to activities related to North Koreans' escapes from the repressive regime, a report showed Thursday.
The Transitional Justice Working Group, an advocacy group for North Korea's human rights, released the report based on in-depth interviews with 62 North Korean defectors between January 2021 and May 2024, analyzing 66 cases of 113 victims of North Korea's enforced disappearances.
The Ministry of State Security, North Korea's counterintelligence and secret police agency, was identified as the "sole perpetrator" of the arrest and detention of 62 people or 54.9 percent of the 113 victims, the report said.
The state agency was also responsible for the disappearances of 92 victims or 81.4 percent, when taking into account cases of those going missing after arrest, detention and repatriation.
As for the reasons for North Koreans' enforced disappearances, activities related to their escapes from the North topped the list with 39.8 percent, followed by guilt by association with 25.7 percent and contact with the outside world, including South Korea, with 8.8 percent.
One in two victims of enforced disappearances was a family member or a relative, according to the report. By age, victims in their 20-30s took up the largest slice with 39 percent, with children under age 10 also being subject to such disappearances, pointing to the seriousness of North Korea's human rights abuses.
Also, nearly 80 percent of the victims were arrested within North Korea, while the remainder were in other countries, including China and Russia.
The report was released ahead of the U.N. Human Rights Council's universal periodic review (UPR) of North Korea on Nov. 7.
The UPR is a mechanism that calls for each U.N. member state to go through a peer review of its human rights record every 4 1/2 years.
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