South Korea mulls skipping annual report on human rights abuses in North Korea

North Korean residents are seen near statues (not pictured) of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, the founder's successor and son, in Pyongyang, July 8. AFP-Yonhap

The South Korean government is considering withholding its annual report on human rights violations in North Korea, a move that comes amid President Lee Jae Myung's push for rapprochement with Pyongyang and, if confirmed, would mark the first such omission since the publication began in 2018.

The Ministry of Unification said Tuesday it is "reviewing various options" in its response to local media reports that the report would not be issued this year.

"We are also taking into account the fact that there hasn’t been much newly collected testimony from North Korean defectors since last year’s publication," a senior ministry official told reporters in a closed-door briefing.

According to the official, around 200 defectors have arrived in the South in recent years, but most of them had spent more than a decade in a third country before resettling here. Fewer than 10 came directly from the North, making it difficult to obtain fresh, meaningful accounts of their homeland for the report.

The official noted that issuing the publication annually is not mandated under law. But he declined to confirm whether the consideration was ordered by Minister Chung Dong-young, citing internal procedures.

During his confirmation hearing, Chung said that "using North Korean human rights issues as a means of attacking the North Korean regime is inappropriate." He had also mentioned that such actions could be a violation of the Inter-Korean Basic Agreement, which stipulates that the two Koreas shall not interfere in each other's domestic affairs.

The annual report, compiled by the ministry's Center for North Korean Human Rights Records, documents abuses committed by the regime based on defector testimonies — a practice that has long infuriated Pyongyang.

Following the enactment of the North Korean Human Rights Act in 2016, the unification ministry began releasing the report annually in 2018.

Under the liberal Moon Jae-in administration, which sought warmer ties with Pyongyang, the report was classified as Level 3 confidential and withheld from the public over concerns about exposing defectors’ personal information.

Artillery subunits of the North's Korean People's Army conduct firing drills, Monday, in this photo provided by the North's official Korean Central News Agency the following day. Yonhap

The subsequent Yoon Suk Yeol administration, adopting a tougher stance on the North, reversed that policy by making the report public for the first time in 2023 and issuing an English-language edition to raise international awareness.

The Lee administration, which took office in June, appears to go one step further than Moon did in potentially deciding not to issue the report at all. This is seen as part of broader efforts to improve the inter-Korean relations that had severely deteriorated under Yoon.

North Korea, however, has so far remained largely unresponsive to Lee's overtures.

Pyongyang conducted artillery firing drills on Monday to bolster its combat readiness, in what appeared to be a response to the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS), a large-scale South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise scheduled to begin Aug. 18.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported Tuesday that the drills aimed to “perfect the capability to fight a war and the battle readiness of the entire army.”

The military drills came a day after Pyongyang warned it would take "self-defense" measures in response to the upcoming UFS.

South Korea's unification ministry said the North's latest drills did not appear to be large-scale, citing the smaller number of weapons involved and the absence of the North's leader Kim Jong-un, who often oversees such exercises.