North Korean defectors seek more UN monitoring of abuses

GENEVA: North Koreans defectors spoke at a UN event in Geneva on Friday to expose human rights violations in a country one of them described as “hell” and to advocate for a strengthened UN mandate to investigate and document them.

The defectors came to the UN in Geneva where diplomats say the UN Human Rights Council will consider an EU-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, prepared his escape for 15 years and fled to South Korea by boat last year.

He took with him his pregnant wife and 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 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.