In March 2011, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea opened the North Korean Human Rights Documentation Center & Archives and started to receive reports of human rights violations committed by the North Korean regime. Torture, beatings, and various kinds of unimaginable human rights violations were happening every day not just in the political prisoner camps but also during the interrogation processes of North Korean defectors who were forcefully repatriated.

 

Stories about the reality of the human rights condition in North Korea are being disclosed to the world through numerous reports, but this casebook is the first of its kind to be compiled and systematically organized by a national
organization. During the past year, the Commission received human rights violation reports from 834 reporters and decided to publish this casebook, with the intention of sharing some of the most outstanding accounts and raising awareness of the human rights situation in North Korea.