A recent report from the Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) has revealed that over 100 North Koreans have disappeared after being detained by the secret police while attempting to defect or contact family members in South Korea. The report highlighted the dangers faced by those attempting to flee or communicate outside North Korea’s heavily restricted borders.
The findings, documented in TJWG’s report Existing “Nowhere”: Looking into North Korea’s Crime of Enforced Disappearance, are based on four years of research and interviews with 62 North Korean escapees now living in South Korea. The report sheds light on a systematic pattern of enforced disappearances within North Korea.
The report, titled Existing “Nowhere”: Looking into North Korea’s Crime of Enforced Disappearance, is based on four years of research, including interviews with 62 defectors now in South Korea.
TJWG documented 113 individuals across 66 cases of enforced disappearance, with nearly 40% of those missing caught while trying to flee. The organization also mapped detention and transfer routes used by North Korean authorities in collaboration with international groups.
The Ministry of State Security (MSS), North Korea’s secret police, was found responsible for 81% of the disappearances after arrest or repatriation, primarily for “offenses” such as fleeing, contacting outsiders, or taking responsibility for family members’ alleged crimes.
About 80% of these disappearances occurred within North Korea, with the remainder in China and Russia. Notably, nearly 30% of cases have taken place since Kim Jong Un assumed power in late 2011.
According to TJWG, one defector from Hyesan recounted how his friend was arrested by the MSS for retrieving a hidden mobile phone and was rumored to have died in custody. This report comes just before the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review on North Korea, underscoring the dire conditions faced by political prisoners. The UN estimates that up to 200,000 people are detained in North Korean labor camps, with a 2014 UN inquiry detailing torture, forced labor, and widespread abuse.
Pyongyang has consistently denounced defectors as “human scum” and has increasingly tightened its border controls in recent years, further restricting the movement of those attempting to escape.
Meanwhile, North Korea’s Korea Association for Human Rights Studies dismissed a recent UN report documenting the regime’s human rights abuses, including enforced disappearances, labeling it as a Western fabrication intended to provoke hostility and damage the country’s image.
China, a critical ally of North Korea, has also downplayed the situation, classifying North Koreans in its territory as “illegal economic migrants” rather than defectors.
The TJWG report calls for greater global awareness and action on these human rights violations, emphasizing the urgent need to address the North Korean regime’s widespread use of enforced disappearances. Advocates hope that, by shedding light on the suffering endured by defectors and their families, more international bodies will recognize the severity of these abuses and encourage collaborative efforts to demand accountability.
