Human Rights Body Details N.Korean Abuses

The National Human Rights Commission unveiled its first report on North Korea's rights violation on Sunday. The evidence was obtained in interviews with some 60 of the 800 North Korean defectors who arrived here since March last year.

The report details the horrific situation of those imprisoned in four political prison camps in Yodok, Kaechon, Pukchang and Hoeryong, and two concentration camps in Jeungsan and Chongori.

West Germany documented 41,390 human rights violations that took place in East Germany. The NHRC's report is a similar attempt to catalog human rights abuses in North Korea indicating specific victims and compiled for the purpose of taking those responsible for crimes against humanity in North Korea to the International Criminal Court after reunification.

The Commission's report contains testimony from a woman who transported the bodies of massacre victims in Jeunggsan camp in South Pyongan Province. She testified that 3,721 people were killed from January to June of 2005, seeing the tag "No. 3,721" on a body being shipped off on an ox cart in June. The number tags for dead bodies start from Jan. 1 of each year.

Kim Tae-hoon, who heads the special committee on North Korea in the Commission, said, "Human rights abuses by the North Korean regime are globally recognized crimes against humanity with no statute of limitation. This report will serve as evidence to punish the North Korean regime in the future."

Although the names of the perpetrators are redacted in the report, the Commission confidentially records the names.