N. Korea 'tests weapons on humans'
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North Korea's secretive weapons program has drawn protests across the border in Seoul.
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LONDON, England -- Human rights campaigners say they have obtained documented evidence that North Korea tests chemical weapons on prisoners.
Kim Sang Hun, a South Korean activist, told reporters in London Wednesday that a North Korean defector saw evidence of human experiments and stole papers documenting the tests.
"Crimes guided by the government are not crimes, so they can openly declare it," Kim told the news conference, organized by the rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
The activist called on the United Nations to create and send a human rights inspection team to investigate allegations of abuses in North Korea, much as U.N. inspectors searched Iraq for banned weapons.
Kim showed reporters a document -- labeled "letter of transfer" and dated February 13, 2002 -- which he said the defector had smuggled out of a North Korean chemical plant.
He identified the defector as senior electrician Kang Byong-sop and the plant as the Vinalon Unified Factory in Hamhung, North Korea, which Kim described as one of the country's largest chemical weapons plants.
According to a translation of the document provided by Christian Solidarity, prisoner Rim Chun-hwa was taken from a government holding center to the factory "for the purpose of human experimentation of liquid gas of chemical weapon."
He said Kang obtained the document and two other official papers from the office of the State Security Agency chief in the factory.
Christian Solidarity released a statement from Kang's older son, Kang Seong Kuk, in which he said his father described seeing human hands pressed against the window of a locked chamber at the factory.
"I am willing to testify to the horrendous crimes by the North Korean regime of human biological experimentation that has been perpetuated over the years in this factory," the younger Kang's statement quoted the elder Kang as saying.
In a recent BBC report, a man claiming to be a former North Korean agent described seeing prisoners gassed to death.
North Korea later called those charges "a trite method of the present U.S. administration to use those defectors for inventing lies," The Associated Press reported
South Korean officials said they could not confirm the BBC report, and other defector groups in Seoul could also not confirm such claims, AP said.
Kim said North Korean agents tried to kidnap the younger Kang in Thailand in late January, in what the activist said was a failed attempt to retrieve some of the documents.
Christian Solidarity said the younger Kang later went into hiding.
Kim said Chinese authorities arrested the older Kang, his wife and a younger son at the border with Laos. The activist said it wasn't clear whether China had sent the family members back to North Korea or was still holding them.
"China is a party, an accomplice, to North Korean crimes against humanity," Kim said.
Activists have made claims of gruesome human rights abuses against prisoners in North Korea for years.
In November last year, tales of torture, public executions, rampant starvation and human trafficking were woven throughout almost two hours of testimony before a U.S. Senate hearing on North Korea. (Torture tales)
North Korea is the world's most isolated country, and allegations about the country are seldom confirmed independently.
-- Karie Atkinson for CNN contributed to this report.
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
