South Korea: NHRC to investigate conditions on N.K. escape route
The National Human Rights Commission said it will dispatch a fact-finding team to investigate the human rights conditions of North Korean refugees fleeing their country along the Southeast Asia ‘escape route’.
The National Human Rights Commission said it will dispatch a fact-finding team to investigate the human rights conditions of North Korean refugees fleeing their country along the Southeast Asia ‘escape route’.
An NHRC official said a fact-finding mission led by a vice minister will go to Southeast Asian nations, including Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma, sometime in June or July to find out the truth about human rights conditions of North Korean refugees, surveying issues such as prostitution and human trafficking of North Korean women.
This will be the NHRC's first project to be implemented since it decided to step up its policy efforts to improve human rights conditions in North Korea as one of six key projects planned for this year.
The commission official said the survey will allow the fact-finding mission to draw up a comprehensive report of escape routes used by North Korean refugees, adding to information on routes to China and Thailand gathered last June and December. The mission will consist of four to six members.
Date: 19 May 2008
Source:
Digital Chosunilbo
