Silent Shadows: The Enforced Disappearances of North Korean Defectors

A Seoul-based human rights group, TJWG, reports that over 100 North Koreans have vanished after being captured by the state's secret police for attempting to escape or contact relatives in South Korea. The report highlights enforced disappearances involving North Korea's Ministry of State Security and implicates China and Russia.

Over a hundred North Koreans have disappeared after being seized by the secret police for attempting to defect or contacting relatives in South Korea, according to a new report by Seoul's Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG). The group interviewed 62 North Korean defectors to uncover these patterns of enforced disappearances.

The investigation identified 113 people across 66 cases, with many disappearing since Kim Jong Un's rise to power in 2011. A significant portion were last seen following detention by the Ministry of State Security, known as the 'bowibu'. These actions are described as transnational crimes in cooperation with China and Russia.

The revelation comes ahead of a U.N. review of North Korean human rights violations. Meanwhile, North Korea dismisses these claims as false Western conspiracies, and China refutes the presence of defectors, labeling them as illegal economic migrants.

(With inputs from agencies.)