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North Korea defectors to testify at U.N. forum on human rights

North Korean defectors Jung Gwang Il, 51, and Kim Yong Soon, 77, plan to speak next week at the United Nations about their experiences in the Yodok concentration camp in South Hamgyeong Province.

By JC Finley
A North Korean soldier approaches to have a look through a window near the demarcation line separating the North and South Korea in the Demilitarized Zone's (DMZ) Joint Security Area (JSA) in Seoul on January 29, 2013. (File/UPI/Stephen Shaver)
A North Korean soldier approaches to have a look through a window near the demarcation line separating the North and South Korea in the Demilitarized Zone's (DMZ) Joint Security Area (JSA) in Seoul on January 29, 2013. (File/UPI/Stephen Shaver) | License Photo

NEW YORK, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Two defectors from North Korea are expected to participate in a human rights forum next week at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Jung Gwang Il, 51, and Kim Yong Soon, 77, said Tuesday they plan to speak about their experiences in the Yodok concentration camp in South Hamgyeong Province.

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Jung was sent to the camp for allegedly spying at a trade firm where he worked. He was held from 2000-2003.

Kim, who spent a decade at the camp beginning in 1970, said she was punished for her close friendship with Sung Hye Rim, the wife of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

The human rights forum is being hosted by the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

Earlier this year, the U.N. released its Commission of Inquiry's report on North Korea, documenting over 400 pages of "unspeakable atrocities."

Last month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry denounced North Korea's "systematic repression, collective punishment, arbitrary execution, penal colonies, prison camps" as inhumane treatment that "should have no place in the 21st century," and called on Pyongyang to "shut this evil system down."

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