National Human Rights Commission of the Republic of Korea on the enactment of a North Korean Human Rights Act; issuing the Chairperson’s welcoming statement on the COI report; issuing the Chairperson’s welcoming statement on the establishment of the UN North Korean Human Rights Field-based Structure in Korea; and announcing the NHRCK’s position on the debate over the enactment of a North Korean Human Rights Act. Again in 2014, the Reporting Center for Human Rights Violations in North Korea and the North Korean Human Rights Documentation Center & Archives, launched in 2011 to lay the institutional foundation for the improvement of human rights situation in North Korea, conducted surveys on North Korean defectors who have recently entered South Korea (466 cases). The collected information was categorized into human rights violation types and analyzed to generate policy tasks and used as basic materials to create publicity videos. In addition, a research on the citizen’s understanding of North Korean defectors, and the discriminatory practices against them, was conducted as an effort to bolster the popular perception of, and the conditions for, North Korean defectors. In regards to international cooperation activities, the Commission continued to build and enhance the cooperative network with major international actors by holding an international symposium on North Korean human rights in partnership with Freie Universität Berlin (Free University of Berlin) and the Hwa-jeong Peace Foundation of Dong-A News Journal in May and conducting on-site investigations around the Chinese-North Korean border areas where a number of North Korean defectors reside. The NHRCK has continuously managed the North Korean Human Rights Forum since its creation in 2008. In 2014, a total of 43 expert members of the Forum who represent academia, legal circles, the press, civil society organizations, etc. convened for a total of four times to develop collaborative policies concerning North Korean human rights. Introduction ▪▪▪ 17