A North Korean defector is set to file civil and criminal charges against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and four other Pyongyang officials for abuses she faced while detained in the country.
Choi Min-kyung fled North Korea to China in 1997 but was forcibly repatriated in 2008. She said she was sexually abused and tortured after her return.
The case, which will be filed on Friday, marks the first time a North Korean-born defector is taking legal action against the regime, said a South Korea-based rights group assisting Ms Choi.
South Korean courts have in the past ruled against North Korea on similar claims of abuse made by South Koreans but such verdicts are largely symbolic and ignored by Pyongyang.
The NKDB says it also plans to take Ms Choi’s case to the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.
“I earnestly wish for this small step to become a cornerstone for the restoration of freedom and human dignity, so that no more innocent North Koreans suffer under this brutal regime,” Ms Choi said on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB).
“As a torture victim and survivor of the North Korean regime, I carry a deep and urgent responsibility to hold the Kim dynasty accountable for crimes against humanity,” she said.
Ms Choi fled North Korea again in 2012 and settled in the South. She said psychological trauma from the ordeal remains and that she continues to rely on medication.
For years international rights groups have documented alleged human rights violations by North Korea, ranging from the abuse of political prisoners to systematic discrimination based on gender and class.
Hanna Song, executive director of the NKDB, told BBC Korean that the lawsuits were significant because they were pursuing criminal charges “in parallel” to civil cases.
Previous court cases against North Korea had been “limited to civil litigation”, she said.
In 2023, a Seoul court ordered North Korea to pay 50 million won ($36,000; £27,000) each to three South Korean men who were exploited after being taken as prisoners of war in North Korea during the Korean War.
In 2024, the North Korean government was also ordered to pay 100 million won to each of five Korean Japanese defectors. They were part of thousands who had left Japan for North Korea in the 1960s and 1980s under a repatriation programme.
They said they had been lured to North Korea decades ago on the promise of “paradise on Earth”, but were instead detained and forced to work.
North Korea did not respond to either of the lawsuits.
But Ms Song, from the NKDB, argued that the rulings offered much-needed closure to the plaintiffs.
“What we’ve come to understand through years of work on accountability is that what victims really seek isn’t just financial compensation – it’s acknowledgment,” said Ms Song.
“Receiving a court ruling in their favour carries enormous meaning. It tells them their story doesn’t just end with them – it’s acknowledged by the state and officially recorded in history.”
