The United Nations Human Rights Office condemned North Korea for abducting and forcibly displacing people at home and abroad in a report released in Geneva on Tuesday.
The report included testimonies from 80 victims and relatives. Some abductions date back decades, in some cases more than 70 years.
A UN spokeswoman said North Korea last abducted someone as recently as 2016. The office is deeply concerned that the abductions were continuing.
"The anguish, sorrow and reprisals that families – across multiple generations – have had to endure are heart-breaking," said Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Entire generations have had to come to terms with "not knowing the fate of spouses, parents, children and siblings."
An enquiry in 2014 found that systematic abductions and forced displacement are characterized as crimes against humanity.
The report deals firstly with internally displaced people, many of which were sent to camps where they were secretly tortured and sometimes executed.
It also addresses North Koreans who fled abroad and were abducted and brought back, South Koreans who were not allowed to return home after the Korean War in the 1950s, and foreigners who were abducted from South Korea and Japan.
"I heard that my wife and son were sent to different camps for political prisoners," the UN body quoted a North Korean as saying. "My son was not yet of age and he should have been released after four years, but I still don't know where he is. Either he is still in a camp or he died there."
