A South Korean advocacy group released a report on Thursday noting that more than 100 North Koreans have gone missing after trying to defect. The Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) published the findings as a part of its mapping project for North Korea.
TJWG held interviews with 62 North Koreans who fled their country and gathered information from 66 cases of 113 enforced disappearances. The report, titled “Existing ‘Nowhere:’ Looking into North Korea’s Crime of Enforced Disappearance,” names North Korea’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), border guards, Defense Security Bureau, and the Ministry of Social Security, as well as Chinese police as implicated in these cases. However, it finds that the MSS is responsible for 81.4 percent of enforced disappearances after arrest and detention.
The report finds that 79.6 percent of victims were arrested in North Korea, while 20.4 percent were arrested in other countries, including Russia and China. Of the 113 victims of forced disappearances, 47.8 percent were relatives of the interviewed North Koreans, including close relatives. A total of 35 disappeared under the rule of current leader Kim Jong Un, 68 disappeared when Kim Jong Il was the supreme leader, and seven disappeared under the rule of Kim Il Sung.
A total of 38.9 percent of victims were in their 20s and 30s, and 11.5 percent were children under the age of ten. 58.4 percent of victims were men with 41.6 percent being women. However, the proportion of women who were victims of enforced disappearance is higher than those of other countries. Attempts to escape North Korea, preparing to escape, being associated with prospective escapees, helping others escape, contacting people outside of North Korea, and criticism of North Korea’s politics were grounds for enforced disappearances.
Ethan Hee-Seok Shin, advocacy director of the TWJG, said that in a month’s time, the organization will publish an advocacy report outlining current and future efforts in holding North Korea accountable for the enforced disappearances. The purpose of their current report was to highlight North Korea’s crimes and to appeal to governments to act.
Freedom House, a US non-profit, stated in a 2024 report that political dissent is harshly punished in North Korea. In 2013, North Korea was ranked lowest regarding civil liberties on Freedom House’s Freedom in the World survey and was categorized as having a repressive rule. North Korean law states that North Korean defectors commit “treachery against the nation” by leaving their country, which is punishable by death. Articles 4(1) and 4(4) of South Korea’s North Korean Refugees Protection and Settlement Support Act ensure the protection of North Korean refugees in South Korea, and North Koreans who escape can be considered for international refugee protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention, extended by the 1967 Protocol, which would provide legal support, protection and rights for refugees.
Article 13 of the North Korean Constitution mentions freedom of speech; however, the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) noted that criticism of the Kim regime was one of the causes of enforced disappearances, and North Korea locks up entire families for having “wrong thoughts.” Article 84 of the North Korean Constitution mentions the right to a fair trial. However, North Korean law is arbitrary and does not meet international standards of due process.
