NKHR officers visited Japan from April 22 to 25 to interview family members whose relatives had immigrated to North Korea and become victims of enforced disappearance enacted by the North Korean government. 

From 1959 to 1984, an estimated 10,000 Koreans residing in Japan moved to the DPRK. Currently, many of them are missing. Their whereabouts and fates remain unknown. It is said that they have been subject to severe political oppression and have often been sent to political prison camps.  

According to the victims' families, Chongryon, the pro-North Korean Association of Korean Residents in Japan, has repeatedly held their relatives in the North as hostages for ransom. 

They said that most remaining families in Japan would rather keep silent, fearing that raising complaints will only put their loved ones in North Korea into greater danger.  

NKHR will conduct further research and will submit 7 cases to the UN WGEID by December 2018.