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South China Morning Post

‘My friends were executed': North Korean defectors tell UN of regime's brutal reality

Eunju Kim, who escaped starvation in North Korea in 1999, only to be sent back and flee a second time, has told the United Nations that the country's leader must be held accountable for gross human rights violations. Gyuri Kang, whose family faced persecution for her grandmother's religious beliefs, fled the North during the Covid-19 pandemic. She told the General Assembly on Tuesday that three of her friends were executed – two for watching South Korean TV dramas. At the high-level meeting of the 193-member world body, the two women, both now living in South Korea , described the plight of North Koreans who UN special investigator Elizabeth Salmón said have been living in 'absolute isolation' since the pandemic began in early 2020 Thousands of North Koreans have fled the country since the late 1990s, but the numbers have dwindled drastically in recent years. Salmón said North Korea's closure of its borders worsened an already dire human rights situation, with new laws enacted since 2020 and stricter punishments, including the death penalty and public executions. Watchtowers are seen along the border between North and South Korea from Paju, 35km north of Seoul. Photo: AFP