Attachments
SUMMARY
The “North Korea’s Transnational Repression” Project
This project was launched in 2024 by the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a Seoul-based human rights documentation and advocacy NGO, and Global Rights Compliance (GRC), an international law foundation dedicated to promoting accountability through the innovative application of international law.
The project aims to investigate the continuity, geographic scope, victim groups, and the changing means and attack patterns of North Korea’s transnational repression.
With the broader objective of seeking countermeasures against it, we will continue to collect information on suspected cases of transnational repression and identify incidents with more detailed information. The project will also determine elements of transnational repression and analyze North Korea’s operational methods.
Researchers and external subject-matter consultants outside the portfolio of the project’s main partners have also been brought onto the project to investigate the role of involved countries other than North Korea and analyze information in various languages.
Of the three planned issue briefs, this first edition outlines the rationale and direction of the project. The subsequent two briefs will examine North Korea’s transnational repression in China and Russia, where international mutual assistance is particularly important.
TJWG and GRC intend to share the project’s open-source and closed-source findings on specific incidents, victims, and perpetrators, as well as policy and advocacy recommendations with EU policymakers and their domestic counterparts.
In 2026, TJWG and GRC will organize an international conference in Seoul to discuss and develop countermeasures, as well as publish and distribute a comprehensive report in English and Korean.
PUBLISHER
Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG)
Seoul, South Korea
Website www.tjwg.org (Korean) / en.tjwg.org (English)
E-mail info@tjwg.org
Phone +82-2-722-1162
Fax +82-2-722-1163
Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) is a human rights documentation NGO established in Seoul in 2014 that aims to develop the best practice to address mass human rights violations and to realize victim-centered approach and justice in societies that are making a transition from or have yet to make a transition from armed conflict or dictatorship. TJWG also cooperates and shares experience with organizations and individuals who take the lead in human rights documentation and accountability for mass atrocities.
AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG)
Global Rights Compliance(GRC)
KEYWORDS
North Korea; DPRK; human rights; transnational repression; Kim Jong-un; China; Russia; assassination; enforced disappearance; abductions; deportation; mobility control; coercion by proxy; online intimidation; cyberattacks; spyware; threats from a distance; passport confiscation