"Remarks of Greg Scarlatoiu, HRNK President & CEO" The UN Online Symposium on the Abduction Issue
UN Online Symposium on the Abduction Issue
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
7:30 am – 9:15 am U.S. DST
Greg Scarlatoiu
President and CEO
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK)
Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for inviting me to speak today.
My heart goes out to the family members who have been awaiting answers for decades. The passing of all but one of the parents of the still missing 12 Japanese abductees highlights the urgency of the task ahead. However, other senior members of the families are still alive. Moreover, there may be many more surviving parents, as North Korean abduction cannot be ruled out for at least 869 missing Japanese nationals. Information on those suspected victims is available on the website of the Japanese National Police Agency.
While refusing to open up and reform, the DPRK has recently procured billions of dollars, through cybercrime and exportation of weapons, munitions, and mercenaries to the Middle East and Eastern Europe, in direct violation of applicable UN and other sanctions. High risers, imported cars, cell phones, coffee shops, pizza parlors, beer halls, and high heels may be a familiar sight in the capital city of Pyongyang. But only those from the “core class” under the ruthless loyalty-based Songbun social discrimination system can reside in North Korea’s seat of power and privilege. While Pyongyang thrives, people outside the city starve. The “wavering” and “hostile” classes face a perennial humanitarian crisis, with one third of North Korea’s children suffering from malnutrition.
Elite-cherishing and window-dressing fueled by UN sanctions busting will not bring normalcy to the DPRK. But an earnest and transparent pursuit of a resolution of the abduction issue would be a big step in the right direction.
Despite the pledge made through the May 2014 “Stockholm Agreement,” the DPRK has not delivered on its promises. Before securing verification instrumental in Complete, Verifiable, and Irreversible Denuclearization (CVID), mutual trust is of the essence. Of all of the egregious violations that turned the DPRK into an incessant human rights wasteland, the abduction issue could provide an opening toward the resolution of the country’s nuclear, missile, humanitarian, and human rights conundrum as well as an environment conducive to dialogue and trust building.
From the DPRK’s viewpoint, there are two fundamental impediments to earnest engagement on abductions. First, abduction is linked to the legacy of the current leader’s predecessors. Second, the abductees, forced to provide instruction and fabricated identities to DPRK clandestine agents dispatched overseas, have possessed very sensitive information.
In the midst of an ideological realignment coupled with a significant restructuring of intelligence and security agencies, the DPRK leader may be prone to engaging on an issue created prior to his own rule.
What benefits could the DPRK have from bringing closure to the abduction issue?
While the DPRK has been procuring billions of dollars through its exportation of instability and violence, the conflicts it fuels will surely come to an end. A long-term strategic vision securing the survival of both the DPRK’s regime and its people will require a reasonable degree of international legitimacy and normalization. Failure to resolve the abduction issue would likely render such normalization impossible.
If willing to engage on the issue, in addition to improved relations with Japan and the possible easing of unilateral sanctions, North Korea could build trust on the international stage, which could lead to more beneficial engagement on different topics.
Targeted incentives encouraging DPRK cooperation may include adequately monitored humanitarian assistance, which should be framed not as concessions, but as reciprocal trust-building measures within a clearly defined negotiation framework.
The DPRK’s abduction of nationals of 14 countries reveals a broader pattern of state-sponsored human rights abuse. UN member states impacted by abductions should coordinate legal and diplomatic responses to add pressure and bring closure to the issue.
The abduction issue must be addressed not only geographically, but also thematically. Framing the issue within the established legal and conceptual frameworks of human trafficking, as defined by Article 3 of the 2000 Palermo Protocol, also including child and sex trafficking, could offer additional avenues for international advocacy, legal redress, and pressure put on the DPRK. Such framing could invoke international legal frameworks and leverage reporting mechanisms such as the UNODC, the U.S. Trafficking in Persons Reports, and the Office of the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons.
While the abductees’ families treasure precious memories of happy times and long for closure and reunion, we will continue to do our utmost best to reach full disclosure and to emphasize that, for the DPRK leadership, resolving the abduction issue is the righteous path, morally, ethically, legally, and politically. Thank you very much.
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