“U.N. Report on North Korean Human Rights Includes Korean War Abductees”

Nov. 13, 2013
Donga Daily


UN's COI for DPRK Will Submit Report Next March

The Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (COI) has decided to include North Korea’s systematic abduction of South Korean civilians during the Korean War in its report on the human rights situation in the country. The COI will submit this report to the U.N. Human Rights Commission next March.

“After meeting with the chief of the COI’s Forced Disappearances Investigation Committee I heard that the COI takes the wartime abductee issue very seriously and will include it in the report it will submit next year,” said Kim Tae Hoon, the head of Lawyers for Human Rights and Unification of Korea (LHRUK). Kim recently returned from a visit to the COI in Geneva and International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.

“I also heard from a high ranking member of the ICC that the wartime abductee issue may fall under the purview of a “continuing crime” as my organization has argued.”

A “continuing crime” refers to imprisonment or similar situation where the criminal violation continues over time. LHRUK and the Korean War Abductees’ Family Union (KWAFU) recently brought a lawsuit against Kim Jong Un, the first secretary of the Korean Workers’ Party, for his role in the wartime abduction issue.

While the post-war abduction issue has been mentioned on several occasions, the wartime abduction issue has largely failed to receive interest in the international community. KWAFU estimates that around 100,000 South Korean civilians were abducted by North Korea during the Korean War.