"UN Requests North Korea to Check on the Well-being of Three Repatriated Zainichi Korean Family Members"

The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) has requested North Korea to investigate the whereabouts and well-being of three repatriated Zainichi Korean family members. They are believed to have been sent to a political prison camp.

United Nations Office at Geneva, Switzerland. Photo by Reuters and Yonhap News Agency

According to Kyodo News on the 18th, the working group received a petition last year from defector Lee Kyung-hee and requested North Korea to investigate three individuals?her father, mother, and older sister?around the 11th of this month. Lee's father and mother were Zainichi Koreans living in Japan who went to North Korea as part of the past repatriation program for Zainichi Koreans.

An official stated that they are believed to have been sent to a political prison camp between October 2007 and April 2008, suspected of the possibility of defection.