North Korean women detained in prison camps suffered from torture, rape and other forms of “multiple and serious” violence by security and police officials, a UN human rights report said on Tuesday, citing accounts from over 100 women.
ALL OF THE WOMEN MANAGED TO DEFECT TO SOUTH KOREA
The women, detained between 2009 and 2019 after failing to flee the country, recounted in interviews with UN investigators in Seoul after their release, how they were deprived of food, sleep, daylight and fresh air while in the detention centres and prison camps.
Many also said in the report titled “I Still Feel The Pain” that they were subjected to torture, invasive body searches, forced abortions and even rape by authorities there.
“I did not sleep and worked because I did not want to be beaten. It was excruciating to a level that I even attempted to commit suicide,” one woman was quoted as saying.
South Korea’s Moon Jae-in government, which is trying to improve ties with the North, recently came under criticism after revoking the licenses of defector groups and banning their campaigns to send anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border.