The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) was invited to address UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk during his official visit to the Republic of Korea, presenting findings on the ongoing human rights crisis in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and urging sustained international engagement and accountability.
The High Commissioner's visit, which included meetings with government officials, civil society organisations, business leaders, and the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, provided a critical opportunity for NKDB to present the findings of more than two decades of documentation work directly to the head of the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR).
NKDB's Address to the High Commissioner
In its address, NKDB highlighted three areas of urgent concern.
- An intentional information blackout. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 3,000 North Koreans arrived in South Korea each year. Over the past five years, a handful of individuals with recent firsthand experience inside North Korea have arrived. NKDB characterised this dramatic decline not as a byproduct of border closures alone, but as a deliberate strategy by the DPRK regime to suppress the flow of information and sever civil society's access to survivor testimony.
- The limits of judicial accountability. NKDB noted that while survivors have pursued legal judgments through South Korean domestic courts, enforcement has been virtually nonexistent. The UN Commission of Inquiry's 2014 recommendation to refer Kim Jong Un to the International Criminal Court remains blocked at the Security Council level by geopolitical considerations. NKDB stressed that non-judicial forms of accountability — including memorialisation, psychosocial support for survivors, and sustained documentation — are therefore essential and must receive commensurate international support.
- The overpoliticisation of North Korean human rights. NKDB called on the High Commissioner to reinforce, in his engagements with South Korean government officials, the importance of a universal, human rights-based approach to North Korea — one that is insulated from domestic partisan politics and changes in government.
High Commissioner Türk's Press Statement
In his official closing press statement, High Commissioner Türk directly echoed a message conveyed during his engagements with human rights defenders, warning that:
"The DPRK is counting on the world's attention having moved on, and on the silence becoming permanent."
This statement reflects the central concern raised by NKDB in its address — that the deliberate silencing of North Korea, sustained through border controls, repression, and international inattention, must be actively resisted by the international community.
The High Commissioner further affirmed that serious human rights violations in the DPRK are ongoing, that some may amount to crimes against humanity, and that accountability — including through referral to the International Criminal Court and the use of universal jurisdiction — remains essential. He also noted that OHCHR's Seoul office continues to preserve and analyse documentation critical to future truth, justice, and accountability efforts.
Statement from NKDB
"Documentation is the foundation of accountability. The testimonies gathered by survivors and civil society organisations formed the evidentiary basis for the UN's first resolution on North Korean human rights in 2003, and later for the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry in 2013. None of this would have been possible without survivors willing to speak, and organisations willing to listen.
Today, North Korea is defined not by visibility, but by silence — not the silence of peace, but the silence of repression and disappearance. We cannot allow the world to grow comfortable with that silence.
NKDB remains committed to working with OHCHR and partners around the world to ensure that survivors are heard, documented, and never forgotten."
The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) was invited to address UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk during his official visit to the Republic of Korea, presenting findings on the ongoing human rights crisis in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and urging sustained international engagement and accountability.
The High Commissioner's visit, which included meetings with government officials, civil society organisations, business leaders, and the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, provided a critical opportunity for NKDB to present the findings of more than two decades of documentation work directly to the head of the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR).
NKDB's Address to the High Commissioner
In its address, NKDB highlighted three areas of urgent concern.
High Commissioner Türk's Press Statement
In his official closing press statement, High Commissioner Türk directly echoed a message conveyed during his engagements with human rights defenders, warning that:
This statement reflects the central concern raised by NKDB in its address — that the deliberate silencing of North Korea, sustained through border controls, repression, and international inattention, must be actively resisted by the international community.
The High Commissioner further affirmed that serious human rights violations in the DPRK are ongoing, that some may amount to crimes against humanity, and that accountability — including through referral to the International Criminal Court and the use of universal jurisdiction — remains essential. He also noted that OHCHR's Seoul office continues to preserve and analyse documentation critical to future truth, justice, and accountability efforts.
Statement from NKDB