The UN Human Rights Office today presented a new report that compiles cases of forced disappearances and kidnappings carried out by the North Korean regime which requires more efforts to bring justice and reparation for the victims and their families.
“Enforced disappearances are one of the most heinous crimes because it not only affects the victim himself, but also his relatives for generations, as the report shows”, explained today the director of the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul, James Heenanduring the presentation of the document in the South Korean capital.
The report, titled “These wounds do not heal” (“These wounds do not heal”), is based on 80 interviews with people who have been kidnapped or held against their will against the regime or relatives of those who have disappeared in the most hermetic country in the world.
The testimonies reveal the serious and persistent emotional and psychological damage suffered by the families left behind, in addition to the economic impact, since in many cases the missing persons were the main source of income for the household.
The cases included in the report can be divided into four categories, starting with those of thousands of South Koreans taken prisoner during the Korean war (1950-53) and never returned.
To them are added those of families with members of Korean and Japanese origin (some 93,000 people in total) who, at the end of the World War IIwere repatriated from Japan to North Korea in a campaign orchestrated by Pyongyang to attract labor and talent from abroad.
It also includes people who while in North Korea (and including those deported from China after fleeing the country) were sent to the infamous penal colonies known as “kwanliso” never to be heard from again, and individuals abducted after the Korean War, including South Koreans (more than 500), Japanese (at least 13), and people of at least a dozen other nationalities.
“I was waiting for the plane, which did not land, for hours. Finally, at four in the afternoon, they issued a bulletin reporting the hijacking of the plane. And I have been like this for five decades, without knowing anything else about my husband, ”he assured today read mor, wife of Jang Ki Yeongwho was present today at the presentation of the document together with other victims and relatives.
Jang was one of 11 crew members on a plane Korean Air that Pyonyang kidnapped in 1969 and never returned to its country of origin.
“We are running out of time to bring justice to these people,” he insisted. Eleanor Munoza member of the UN Human Rights Office, presenting victims and relatives today and recalling that many of the latter have died without knowing what has become of their loved ones.
“What the victims want most: the truth,” Heenan stressed, noting that the report makes very clear recommendations; It demands, mainly from Pyonyang, transparency, accountability and, above all, that no more cases like this happen again.
(With information from EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com