Defectors seek more UN monitoring of abuses in North Korea

GENEVA — North Korean defectors spoke at a United Nations event on March 15 to expose human rights violations in a country that one of them described as "hell" and to call for a strengthened UN mandate to investigate and document the abuses.

The defectors came to the UN in Geneva, where diplomats say the UN Human Rights Council will consider a European Union-led motion to boost scrutiny by providing an update to a landmark 2014 report that found grave abuses constituting crimes against humanity.

Kim, a 33-year-old escapee who asked not to give his full name to protect those who remain in North Korea, prepared his escape for 15 years and fled to South Korea by boat in 2023.

He took with him his pregnant wife, as well as his father's ashes because he was afraid he would be punished as a traitor for escaping by disinterring his father's grave.

He told the UN meeting that authorities harassed him and confiscated his food and he had barely enough to survive after Covid-19 era restrictions came in.

"I was so angry that I couldn't do anything in this country. I couldn't live in this hell," Kim told Reuters on the sidelines. "I stood on this stage with a hope that the North Korean government will allow my family and friends still living there to live a slightly more comfortable life."

Another defector, Kim Kyu-li, who escaped by swimming across the Tumen River to China in 1997, said she was worried that her sister might die after being arrested and sent back to North Korea from China in 2023.

"In 2003, my brother passed away in jail from starvation and severe punishment. I don't want my sister to die as my brother did," she told the meeting, saying they had lost all contact.

North Korea has rejected accusations of rights abuses