South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has found that North Korea systematically violated human rights during a decades-long campaign to lure ethnic Koreans from Japan to North Korea, concluding the first ROK government probe into the issue.

The investigation centered on 27 individuals, including ethnic Koreans in Japan and their descendants, who were misled by DPRK propaganda that portrayed the country as a “Paradise on Earth.” Once in North Korea, these individuals were subjected to exploitation, discrimination, privacy violations and forced disappearances, the commission stated in a press release on Tuesday.

The commission based its investigation on official