A North Korean defector has filed a lawsuit against Kim Jong-un in a South Korean court, alleging torture and sexual violence in the regime’s detention facilities.
Choi Min-kyung, 53, is seeking 50m won (US$37,000) in damages from the North Korean state represented by its leader, Kim Jong-un, and six other officials. She also submitted a criminal complaint asking prosecutors to investigate crimes against humanity charges against Kim and five other officials.
The filings at Seoul’s central district court and prosecutors’ office on Friday will represent what supporters say is the first time a North Korean defector has pursued legal action for the regime’s human rights violations in South Korean courts.
“It’s been 13 years since I settled in South Korea but I still suffer from severe PTSD from torture aftereffects and live dependent on medication,” Choi told the Guardian. “The scars on my entire body testify to the horrific reality of North Korean human rights.”
Choi escaped North Korea in 1997 but was forcibly repatriated from China four times between 2000 and 2008. During her final repatriation in 2008, she spent five months detained across three facilities in North Hamgyong province.
The complaints – seen by the Guardian – detail specific alleged incidents, including sexual assault during an unsanitary body cavity search without gloves, severe beatings that burst her right eardrum and left her unconscious, and systematic torture through forced stress positions lasting more than 15 hours daily.
Among Choi’s lawyers is Lee Young-hyun, himself a North Korean defector who became the first North Korean-born lawyer qualified to practise in South Korea.
The Database Centre for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), which supported the case, plans to use it as a foundation for submissions to UN human rights bodies and the international criminal court.
“This case may serve as a precedent-setting moment in South Korean jurisprudence, as domestic courts have had little prior case law dealing with crimes against humanity,” said Seongyeop Lee, a human rights analyst at NKDB.
“As other victims have also expressed interest in legal action, this case could lay the foundation for future collective lawsuits and contribute to broader accountability efforts.”
Both filings name Kim Jong-un as a defendant bearing responsibility for the alleged abuses. The criminal complaint argues he has command responsibility for systematic crimes against humanity under the principle that North Korean officials operate under the supreme leader’s “effective control”.
The complaint draws heavily on the 2014 UN commission of inquiry that found North Korea committed widespread crimes against humanity, including torture, sexual violence and arbitrary detention. The report documented systemic abuses in the country’s network of political prison camps, estimated to hold between 80,000 and 120,000 people.
Previous civil lawsuits against North Korea include cases by former prisoners of war seeking compensation for forced labour, families of South Koreans abducted during the Korean war, and a 2023 case seeking damages for North Korea’s destruction of an inter-Korean liaison office.
In theory, South Korean courts can hear such cases because the country’s constitution considers North Korea part of Korean territory, rather than a separate sovereign state.
The civil complaint lists North Korea’s UN mission in New York as the service address, since direct service to Pyongyang institutions is impossible.
However, enforcement remains impossible as there is no mechanism to compel North Korea to pay damages even when plaintiffs win, making such victories largely symbolic.
Joanna Hosaniak of the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights cautioned that crimes against humanity cases typically required multiple victims and extensive evidence of systematic patterns.
“These are hugely complex legal proceedings that usually take years to build properly,” she said.
But Choi remains undeterred. “We must act while survivors are still alive to testify,” she said.
“This small step must become a cornerstone for freedom and human rights, so no more innocent North Koreans suffer under this brutal regime.
“We are the living witnesses.”