Hanawon. Korea Times file

By Kang Seung-woo

North Korean defectors are plagued by repeated questioning by South Korean organizations into human rights conditions in their former country.

When those who defect from the totalitarian state arrive in South Korea, they have to face three rounds of interrogation, being forced to answer almost identical questions repeatedly and suffering emotional distress in the process.

The three interrogations are made by the unification ministry's Center for North Korean Human Rights Records, the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Seoul.

Until last year, there were four institutes investigating into the human rights situation in the North.

According to the ministry, the Center for North Korean Human Rights Records researches the overall human rights situation in addition to specific cases of human rights violations in the North through questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews with the defectors two weeks after they enter the state-run Settlement Support Center for North Korean Refugees, better known as Hanawon.

In the third week, the KINU and the OHCHR's Seoul office carry out separate investigations with some of the defectors into the North's human rights issues.

Until last year, the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), a non-governmental organization, also investigated cases of human rights violations by interviewing North Korean defectors in the South.

When there was a higher number of defectors arriving in South Korea, each person would only be questioned in one or two interviews by the organizations conducting these investigations. But amid a decline in the number of defectors coming to the South, they are now subjected to up to three interviews in which they have to repeat the same information, which critics say could be distressing for the defectors.

According to the unification ministry, the number of North Korean defectors coming into the South recorded an all-time low in the second quarter this year, at 12, due to the North's tightened border control amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The government is also aware of the difficulty that the defectors face.

"It is no doubt that North Korean defectors are forced to repeat stories of their past bitter memories of human rights violations," a ministry official said.

In order to prevent suffering from repeated questioning, the government this year reduced the number of defectors undergoing these interviews by 30 percent compared to previous years, although it did not disclose exactly how many people are subject to the interrogations. In addition, the government canceled its contract with the NKDB, which refused to accept the reduction in the number of research subjects.

However, some claim that the government should come up with more reliable and detailed investigation results.

According to the NKDB, the Center for North Korean Human Rights Records has never issued either a report or a white paper on human rights conditions in the North.

It also calls on the government to allow the private sector to investigate the North's human rights violations.