(LEAD) No human rights violations found at N. Korean defectors' debriefing center since 2014: NIS chief

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By Koh Byung-joon

SIHEUNG, South Korea, June 23 (Yonhap) -- No cases of human rights violations have been reported since 2014 at a debriefing center that South Korea runs for North Korean defectors, the chief of the country's main intelligence agency said Wednesday.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) has been running the North Korean Refugee Protection Center since 2008, tasking it with carrying out a probe into North Korean defectors as soon as they enter the South. They have to stay there for up to three months for questioning, and if proved to be clear of any suspicion, they proceed with resettlement programs.

Some, however, raised allegations of human rights violations in the process of what they claim to be heavy-handed questioning. The center has sought to improve human rights conditions since 2014, when it was revealed that a North Korean defector was indicted on espionage charges based on fabricated and coerced testimonies.

"Since 2014 up until this year, about 7,600 people have gone through the protection center but no confirmed human rights violations have been reported," NIS Director Park Jie-won told reporters during a press meeting held at the facility.

"There are three legal cases underway against the center but they are all about things that happened in 2013," he said.

Earlier in the day, the NIS unveiled the center located south of Seoul to a group of reporters. This marked the second time that the facility was disclosed to the press since it was launched in 2008.

Center officials said that they have made a variety of efforts to improve human rights conditions at their facility by making the questioning process more transparent, removing anything that could possibly infringe upon privacy and ensuring those people are provided with better basic services, among other things.

Park emphasized that more focus placed on improving human rights conditions has not resulted in compromising its ability to identify spies, as it has used questioning based more on the NIS-owned database and other scientific techniques.

"Under the unique condition of division (on the Korean Peninsula), we have no choice but to carry out a probe into defectors. If there is a spy, it is the NIS' job to capture the spy. Somebody has to do this work in order to protect our national security," he said.

According to the NIS, the center has identified a total of 11 spies among those who have stayed at its facility.

kokobj@yna.co.kr
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