In 2000s, David Hawk, the US Committee for Human Rights in North
Korea published a report10”The Hidden Gulag” in 2003 on PPC and other
detention facilities in North Korea on the basis of in-depth interviews with six
former PPC prisoners. The Committee has upheld the international concern
by publishing a report in 2007, bringing the 2003 report in the context of the
Rome
Statute
of
the
International
Criminal
Court
and
making
recommendations for international organizations.
London-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide published a report in
2007 that clearly documented the practice of human rights abuse and crimes
against humanity in North Korea and called for the inauguration of an
international commission of enquiry and action by the UN11. The report is
under plan for translation into Korean by the Database Center for North
Korean Human Rights (NKDB).
In Korea, NKDB, the Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, a
Japanese NGO based in Tokyo, and Helping Hands-Korea published a book
in English in 2003, a collection of testimonies and first-hand witness accounts
by former prisoners and guards of PPC.12 The North Korean Gulag, an NGO
in Seoul, announced details of 617 who were the prisoners at PPC or missing
in its report published in 200413.
In October, 2009, Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, announced
the results of a survey on the basis of questionnaires from a total of 1,346
North Korean defectors hiding in 11 provinces in China during the period
10
David Hawk, The Hidden Gulag (Washington D.C.: US Committee for Human
Rights in North Korea (HRNK), 2003)
11
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), “North Korea: A Case to Answer, A
Call toAct” (London: CSW, 2007)
12
Kim Sang Hun and others, “Are They Telling Us the Truth?”
(Tokyo,NKDB,Life Funds for North Korean Refugees and Helping Hands
Korea,2003)
13
North Korean Gulag, “Forgotten Names,” Seoul, Shidae Jongshin, 2004
17