S. Korean agency to begin interviews with NK defectors for human rights violations

A South Korean agency that will document North Korea's human rights abuses will start interviewing North Korean defectors to check crimes carried out by the communist state, a government official said Sunday.

The Center for North Korean Human Rights Records will interview individual North Korean defectors at Hanawon, a facility that provides three months of resettlement education for those fleeing the North to the South, according to a unification ministry official.

The center, which is under the unification ministry that deals mostly with inter-Korean affairs, was launched in late September in accordance with a new law aimed at improving Pyongyang's dismal treatment of its people.

It will compile its findings about human rights violations and other crimes based on the interviews, with the data to be sent to an archives at the justice ministry. The archives will be updated every three months.

The North has been labeled one of the worst human rights violators in the world, but Pyongyang has denied such criticism, calling it a U.S.-led attempt to topple its regime.

Human rights violations in the North have been receiving renewed attention recently, with calls growing for global cooperation to shed light on people suffering from the North's oppressive regime.

South Korea and the United States held their first meeting earlier this month after launching a consultative body to discuss ways to improve the abject human rights situation in North Korea, according to the foreign ministry here. (Yonhap)