Joint Statement in Support of Progress toward a Crimes Against Humanity Treaty

The undersigned organizations and individuals — with representation from multiple geographic regions — express our support for a global convention on crimes ...

North Korea escapees say executions continue, including for viewing banned videos

OTTAWA - North Koreans who have escaped from Kim Jong Un’s regime say public executions for offences, including watching South Korean videos, are still taking place, some in front of crowds of spectators forced to watch. www.thestar.com

North Korea conducts public executions for theft, watching South Korea media: report

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea carries out public executions on river banks and at school grounds and marketplaces for charges such as stealing copper from factory machines, distributing media from South Korea and prostitution, a report issued on Wednesday said. www.reuters.com

Hundreds of North Korean execution sites identified, says rights group

South-Korea-based group says it has found more than 300 such sites after interviewing more than 600 defectors www.theguardian.com

Eyewitnesses help document public executions in North Korea for a day of reckoning

As a boy of about 9 or 10, Kang Chun Hyok waded between grown-ups’ legs and made his way to the front of a crowd of hundreds assembled near a brick factory in his hometown, not far from North Korea’s border with China. www.latimes.com

Half of North Korean defectors suffered violence, but rights is not a top summit issue

About half of 451 North Korean defectors questioned in a survey endured physical violence at the hands of North Korean authorities, a rights group has said as leader Kim Jong Un prepared to meet U.S. President Donald Trump for a summit.
www.japantimes.co.jp

Half of North Korean defectors suffered violence, but rights is not a top summit issue

About half of 451 North Korean defectors questioned in a survey endured physical violence at the hands of North Korean authorities, a rights group has said as leader Kim Jong Un prepared to meet U.S. President Donald Trump for a summit.
www.taipeitimes.com

Half of North Korea defectors suffered violence, but rights not a top summit issue

About half of 451 North Korean defectors questioned in a survey endured physical violence at the hands of North Korean authorities, a rights group has said as leader Kim Jong Un prepared to meet U.S. President Donald Trump for a summit.
www.straitstimes.com

Justice Goes Unserved for North Korea's Victims of Human Rights Abuses

Ms Shin* didn’t know she was a victim of human rights abuses in North Korea until years after coming to South Korea. Attacked one day by a drunk police officer, she was wounded so badly she was kept in a cell for weeks until her injuries were less likely to draw suspicion from her neighbours. Years later, she continues to suffer from the physical and emotional after-effects of the attack.At the time, she knew that what was happening to her was unjust. She says, however, that she felt “powerless to do anything about it”. It was only after escaping the North and settling into South Korea that she realised that she was in fact entitled to certain human rights.
www.asiancorrespondent.com

A Very Distant Hope for North Koreans

Ms Shin* didn’t know she was a victim of human rights abuses in North Korea until years after coming to South Korea. Attacked one day by a drunk police officer, she was wounded so badly she was kept in a cell for weeks until her injuries were less likely to draw suspicion from her neighbours. Years later, she continues to suffer from the physical and emotional after-effects of the attack.At the time, she knew that what was happening to her was unjust. She says, however, that she felt “powerless to do anything about it”. It was only after escaping the North and settling into South Korea that she realised that she was in fact entitled to certain human rights.
www.policyforum.net

Will Trump Raise The Issue Of Mass Atrocities With The New Ally?

After the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, many hoped that at least some of the human rights abuses in North Korea will be addressed. While the meeting was certainly a historic event, it is unclear whether it will lead to any historic changes, especially in relation to the crimes against humanity perpetrated in North Korea.
www.forbes.com

Knowing Where the Bodies Are Buried

The 2014 publication of the UN Commission of Inquiry report concluded that crimes against humanity were being perpetrated in North Korea and contributed to the establishment of the South Korean government’s Center for North Korean Human Rights Records and the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul. The latest manifestation of the COI’s influence is the publication of the report “Mapping Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea” by the Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group.
www.piie.com

South Korea-based NGO mapping North Korean abuses from above: report

Transitional Justice Working Group aiming to identify mass burial and execution sites
www.nknews.org

North Korea conducts public executions for theft, watching South Korea media: report

North Korea carries out public executions on river banks and at school grounds and marketplaces for charges such as stealing copper from factory machines, distributing media from South Korea and prostitution, a report issued on Wednesday said.
www.reuters.com

Report details public executions for petty theft in North Korea

North Korea carries out public executions on river banks and at school grounds and marketplaces for charges such as stealing copper from factory machines, distributing media from South Korea and prostitution, according to a new report. Grace Lee reports.
www.reuters.com

Mapping the Brutality of North Korea, and Where the Bodies Are Buried

For two years, from a cramped office in central Seoul, activists and volunteers from five countries have been doing something never tried before: creating interactive maps of places where North Korea is thought to have executed and buried prisoners.
www.nytimes.com

NGOs Stress Need for Government Action on Anniversary of Human Rights Act

South Korea’s Ministry of Unification hosted a forum recently to mark the first anniversary of the passing of the North Korean Human Rights Act. Participants from various human rights NGOs in Seoul spoke on the importance of full implementation of the act.
www.dailynk.com

Statue Wars Reveal Contested History of Japan’s ‘Comfort Women'

On December 30 2016, a South Korean civic group placed a bronze statue of a girl in front of the Japanese consulate in the southern port city of Busan. It commemorates as many as 200,000 enslaved military prostitutes, known as “comfort women”, from Korea and other parts of East Asia under Japanese domination during the second world war. In response, Japan recalled its ambassador.
www.theconversation.com

Defectors Use Satellite Imagery to Identify Mass Graves

Using satellite imagery and testimony from defectors, a human rights group in South Korea claims to have identified at least 12 potential mass graves in North Korea.
www.telegraph.co.uk

The Reality of Life After Flight

A high profile North Korean diplomat last week joined 30,000 defectors who already call South Korea home, but for most of them adjustment and acceptance isn’t easy, Sarah Son writes.
www.policyforum.net

Planning for Transitional Justice on the Korean Peninsula

In the wake of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea, South Korea faces challenges in preparing for transitional justice ahead of regime change in the North and possible inter-Korean unification.

South Korea's Efforts in Solving North Korea's Human Rights Issue

In June of this year, the United Nations opened a new Human Rights Office in Seoul to monitor the human rights situation in North Korea. Furthermore, the third committee of the UN General Assembly passed last month a resolution on such issue in an overwhelming vote of 112 to 19. These two landmark events this year alone have further underlined an undeniable truth: the human rights situation in North Korea is not only in the world's radar, but also a pressing global agenda.
www.AriRang.co.kr

Post Transition as Important as the Path that Precedes it

While the road to a North Korea in transition is rife with stumbling blocks, as many if not more lie at the end, at which point the transitional justice process for the North will have only just begun.
www.dailynk.com

Lessons Learned from Germany for Transitional Justice in NK

North Korea’s apprehension of citizens without due process of law, its systematic political prison camps, and myriad other violations of human rights are gradually gaining more attention from the international community. And so, within this social milieu, a group of NGOs convened to shed light on how to bring about justice for North Korean human rights victims.
www.dailynk.com