4 mind of actors who live their own lives. Considering this perspective, this research did not categorize human rights violations that North Korean refugee women encountered according to legal concepts or the provisions of human rights agreements, but expressed and organised experiences of human rights violations in the ‘words of North Korean refugee women’ as they naturally welled up in the course of their narrations. Such an endeavour involved the ‘task of giving names’ to experiences of human rights violations in the ‘words’ of North Korean refugee women themselves. These ‘acts of naming’ entailed work to reveal injuries hidden deep inside their bodies and minds as well as to expand human rights into all, even covert aspects of life. Certainly, the task of promoting and furthering the human rights of North Korean refugee women who have come to and currently live in South Korea does not constitute a duty assigned to the state alone, but, as we live together with North Korean refugee women, becomes a task for all members of society. The following report is organised in eight parts. Chapter 2 reviews existing fact-finding studies and research on the human rights situation in North Korea and on human rights violations encountered by North Korean refugee women, and suggests focal points relevant for this study on the reality of violations of North Korean refugee women’s human rights. Chapter 3 provides a description of the issues addressed and methods used in this research, its problem awareness, research process, etc. Chapter 4 deals with the human rights situation of women in North Korea, Chapter 5 explores the human rights situation of North Korean refugee women in China and third countries, and Chapter 6 refers to the human rights situation of North Korean refugee women in South Korea. Chapter 7 presents the findings by systematizing patterns of human rights violations faced by North Korean refugee women and considers political implications relating to the advancement of their human rights situation. The report concludes with an Appendix containing the essential materials of this study, inter alia, biographical data of the respondents who consented to in-depth interviews, the contents of the in-depth interviews organised by cases of human rights violations, and finally, the findings of the Hanawon survey research are systematized and supplemented.