▲ Gabriella Citroni, chair of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, speaks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul on May 20, 2026. (Yonhap)
▲ A family member of a civilian abducted during the 1950-53 Korean War takes photos of portraits of wartime abductees ahead of a flower-laying ceremony at the inaugural Memorial Day for Korean War Abductees event in the inter-Korean border city Paju in this file photo taken June 28, 2025. June 28 marks the date when Seoul fell to North Korean forces during the war. (Yonhap)
▲ Participants stage a performance during a weekly Wednesday rally near the Statue of Peace, a comfort woman statue, calling for the resolution of the Japanese military sexual slavery issue near the former Japanese Embassy in Seoul in this May 6, 2026, file photo. (Yonhap)

(Yonhap Interview) UN expert-NK abductees

(Yonhap Interview) U.N. rights expert says resolving N.K. abductee issue prerequisite for peace

SEOUL, May 22 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has failed to properly cooperate in resolving abductee issues, and South Korea and the international community need to continue raising the matter, a U.N. human rights expert has said, calling it a prerequisite for achieving lasting peace.

In an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday, Gabriella Citroni, chair of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), said her office has received 538 cases concerning persons who were abducted and disappeared in North Korea.

"Many of those cases involve South Korean citizens who were abducted or whose fate and whereabouts are currently unknown," Citroni said in the interview held in Seoul.

She was visiting South Korea for talks with officials on issues involving South Korean abductees and prisoners of war held in North Korea, victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery and other related matters.

The WGEID generally transmits such cases to the relevant government through its permanent mission in Geneva.

"The DPRK does provide responses -- not consistently and not on every single case -- but as of today, none of the responses has been considered satisfactory or enough to close a case. In some cases, there has been no response," she added. The DPRK is the acronym of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Citroni called for "complementary joint efforts" by South Korea and the international community, urging stakeholding nations to keep the issue alive during international discussions and demand that North Korea clarify the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared.

"There is no single past conflict, internal or international, that has achieved lasting reconciliation or a peace agreement if the issue of disappeared persons in the context of the conflict has not been satisfactorily addressed," she said.

The expert rejected arguments that human rights issues should be set aside in order to prioritize other political issues, such as the denuclearization of North Korea.

"There are some preconditions for a real, genuine, long lasting moving forward. If these issues are not addressed, then they are bound to come back and to hurt the whole peace situation."

The WGEID primarily assists families in determining the fate or whereabouts of missing relatives by serving as a communication channel between victims' families, human rights groups and governments.

The U.N. convention on enforced disappearances was adopted in 2006, but only 78 countries have ratified the treaty so far. South Korea joined the convention in 2023.

Touching on Korean victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery, Citroni said some of the cases could also be considered enforced disappearances and that full reparations have yet to be made for the victims.

Citroni and eight other experts affiliated with the U.N. Human Rights Council issued a joint statement in March expressing "grave concern at the continued lack of justice for survivors of the so-called comfort women system" imposed by the Japanese military during World War II.

"We joined the recent press release in March, so the angle there is that, according to international standards, not enough has been done, particularly with regard to reparations," she said. "Reparations are a broad concept that is not only about compensation, it's apologies, it's much more than that."

They called on Japan "to recognize and fulfill survivors' rights to justice, reparations and full and effective remedy, including through official apologies, adequate compensation and guarantees of non-repetition."

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