UN human rights agency criticizes North Korea for kidnappings

The UN Human Rights Office has condemned North Korea for kidnapping and enforced disappearances at home and abroad. It presented a report on Tuesday in Geneva with testimonials from 80 victims and their families.

Some kidnappings date back decades, some more than 70 years. According to a spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Office, the isolated country abducted a person from South Korea in 2016. The Bureau is deeply concerned that the practice continues in the country itself. It is unknown how many people are affected.

“The fears, grief and reprisals that families have endured for several generations are heartbreaking,” said Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Decades later, the wounds are still deep. He called for new efforts to find out what happened to the people and to restore freedom to those who are still alive.

In 2014, a commission of inquiry determined that the systematic and widespread practice of kidnapping and enforced disappearance constituted crimes against humanity.

On the one hand, the report deals with the fate of people kidnapped in North Korea itself. Many disappeared into camps and were tortured and sometimes executed without the knowledge of their relatives.

“Either he is still in a camp or died there”

But it also includes North Koreans who fled abroad and were abducted and returned there, South Koreans who were not allowed to return home after the Korean War in the 1950s, and foreigners who were abducted from South Korea and Japan, for example. .

“I have heard that my wife and son have been sent to different camps for political prisoners,” the UN human rights office was quoted as saying by a North Korean.

“My son was a minor and he should have been released after four years, but I still don’t know where he is. He is still in a camp or he died there.” When the case happened, the report remained open. (oee/sda/dpa)