Kim Jong Un (AP Photo)
A Seoul-based non-governmental organization has used Google Earth technology to enable North Korean defectors to “build a digital map of crimes against humanity in North Korea.”
The Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) released a new report Wednesday, the result of two years of research and interviews with 375 North Korean defectors, that identifies what it says are grave sites, murder locations and government offices that “may be used for future investigation and prosecution of crimes against humanity.”
Hangings, public executions, cremation sites, and remote burial sites are ostensibly identified, said to be close in proximity to known detention facilities and labor camps. “The majority of burial and killing sites identified were in North Hamgyong Province, which borders China,” the report notes, acknowledging that 221 of the 375 people interviewed came from this province.
North Korean defectors identified 47 “body sites.”
“It is our intention to provide our data to the relevant legal authorities at a time when we expect the necessary criminal investigation to take place."
The researchers used this term because, they said, “While the majority of these sites are burial sites, some of those identified by interviewees were sites where the bodies were not buried but rather abandoned, dumped, hidden without burial, or were storage sites for bodies yet to be buried or cremated.”
According to the organization, data was collected during interviews with the hundreds of North Korean defectors - 100 informants at first, and then another 275 in the second year. They were shown satellite imagery with basic landmark information such as rail lines, to initially orient themselves. Defectors would describe atrocities they had knowledge of, allowing the researchers to note the locations. They also categorized the source’s relationship to the location or the event, indicating if they were physically present, heard or saw directly, heard straight from a victim or heard only as a rumor. The data collected spans decades – not just Kim Jong Un’s current bloody reign, but that of his father Kim Jong Il, the former Supreme Leader, as well.
Map shows alleged killing sites across North Korea, based on interviews with 375 defectors (Transitional Justice Working Group)
The group that produced the report, which they claim is the first of its kind, was founded in 2014 by human rights advocates and international researchers. TJWG crafted the report, entitled “Mapping Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea,” in order to attract more experts and informants to the cause.
In the findings, researchers noted that the project is not endeavoring to “establish individual criminal responsibility of given actors, but rather to expose in a transparent manner the extent of the violations committed and their systematic nature.”
“It is our intention,” states the report, “to provide our data to the relevant legal authorities at a time when we expect the necessary criminal investigation to take place."
Reports of human rights violations out of North Korea are not the only concern for the international community. Recently, the isolated nation has conducted several missile tests, including the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on the Fourth of July.
According to the latest Fox News Poll, 68 percent of voters are concerned about war with North Korea.