MWE Correspondent
A defector from North Korea is filing a civil and criminal lawsuit against the nation’s Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un, accusing him and his government of serious human rights violations.
Choi Min-kyung, who escaped North Korea in 1997, was forcibly repatriated from China in 2008. Upon her return, she says she endured months of torture, sexual violence, and inhumane treatment in a detention facility operated by the country’s feared Ministry of State Security.
Now living in South Korea, Choi plans to submit her legal complaint at the Seoul Central District Court on Friday, with support from the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB).
Choi’s harrowing testimony reflects what numerous international bodies have long documented about conditions inside North Korea. Detainees in political prison camps, known locally as Kwanliso, often suffer from starvation, beatings, forced labor, and executions.
She alleges that after being deported, she was taken to a detention facility near Onsong County in the country’s north, where interrogators subjected her to violent physical abuse. “They tore apart my identity and treated me like less than human,” she said in a statement released by NKDB.
Choi’s case is significant not just for its content, but for its legal scope. It will be the first time a North Korean defector files both civil and criminal charges against the regime.
The criminal suit is being filed under South Korea’s Act on Crimes within Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, mirroring international legal principles based on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). This could allow South Korea to prosecute crimes against humanity domestically even when committed outside its borders.
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According to Human Rights Watch and UN reports, such abuses have long been part of the North’s repressive state machinery.
While the North Korean government has never acknowledged or responded to such lawsuits, human rights activists say the symbolic value is immense.
“Even if there is no immediate enforcement, this is a vital documentation of truth,” said Hanna Song, Executive Director of NKDB. “It sends a message to survivors that their voices matter.”
Choi herself now leads a support group for female defectors, and said she is bringing the suit not just for herself, but for the thousands of women who remain behind bars or live in fear of returning.
“I carry their pain with me,” she said. “I am just one voice among many who want the world to hear.”
Choi’s legal team also plans to forward evidence to the United Nations Human Rights Council and is exploring future collaboration with the International Commission of Jurists.
The timing is significant, given increasing scrutiny over authoritarian regimes and ongoing efforts to expand the reach of international criminal justice.
Human rights lawyers suggest that this case, while unlikely to yield immediate convictions, could influence future transitional justice mechanisms if regime change ever occurs in North Korea.
