Introduction
1. This report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR or the Office) highlights allegations of human rights violations that may constitute enforced disappearances committed in and by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. This report is produced pursuant to the mandate of the High Commissioner, as provided by General Assembly resolution 48/141, and Human Rights Council resolution 25/25, establishing the OHCHR field-based structure in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Pursuant to the latter resolution, the field-based structure is mandated, inter alia, to strengthen monitoring and documentation of the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to ensure accountability, to enhance engagement and capacity building, and to maintain visibility of the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including through sustained communications, advocacy and outreach initiatives.
2. Allegations of enforced disappearance in and by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including through international abductions, are well-documented by United Nations human rights bodies. In 2014, the commission of inquiry on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (COI) found that State-sponsored abductions and enforced disappearance of people from other nations were unique in their intensity, scale and nature1. The COI further concluded that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was carrying out a systematic and widespread attack against populations that it considered to pose a threat to the political system and leadership of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, especially inmates of political prison camps and persons who flee the country. In light of this systematic attack, the COI found that systematic abductions, denial of repatriation, and enforced disappearance of persons from other countries on a large scale as a matter of state policy constituted crimes against humanity.
3. This report examines the ongoing suffering of victims of enforced disappearance and abduction, including relatives of forcibly disappeared persons, as vividly illustrated in their own accounts to OHCHR, and reflects their perspectives on truth-seeking, justice mechanisms, and reparations. It also aims to highlight the social, economic, and cultural consequences of enforced disappearance, and their disparate impact on women and children.
4. The information presented in this report forms an integral part of the development by OHCHR of possible strategies for future accountability processes pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 34/24, 40/20, and 46/17.
1/ Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (A/HRC/25/63). See also Report of the detailed findings of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (A/HRC/25/CRP.1) (Detailed COI Report).
