A/HRC/26/43 majority of victims were forcibly disappeared to gain labour and other skills for the State. Some victims were used to further espionage and terrorist activities. Women abducted from Europe, the Middle East and Asia were subjected to forced marriages with men from other countries to prevent liaisons on their part with ethnic Korean women that could result in interracial children. Some of the abducted women had also been subject to sexual exploitation.31 Furthermore, ethnic Koreans from the Republic of Korea and Japan, forcibly disappeared by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, had been discriminated against for their origins and background, categorized as “hostile” and forced to work in mines and farms in remote marginalized areas of the country.32 Since the 1990s, agents of the State had abducted a number of persons from Chinese territory, including nationals of China, the Republic of Korea and, in at least one case, a former Japanese national.33In addition to victims from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, nationals of Lebanon, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Romania, and possibly others,34 were among the cases of international abduction and enforced disappearances recorded by the commission.35 The Special Rapporteur will be contacting these States to seek further information and to engage them in follow-up actions on behalf of their missing citizens. 2. Engagement of civil society and contact with local communities 49. If the new strategy currently being developed is to succeed in addressing the issue of international abductions and enforced disappearances, the international community must work together. All Governments concerned, families, civil society and relevant United Nations mechanisms should engage strategically in this new phase of work. In addition, the strategy must also involve the general public, in particular in the countries concerned, so that communities in different locations may be informed and hence empowered to share available information with the international mechanisms. The Special Rapporteur is pleased to note that Human Rights Council, in its resolution 25/25, specifically requested sustained communications, advocacy and outreach initiatives to maintain visibility of the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He plans to use this new communications capacity as he pursues a strategy, involving all concerned United Nations human rights mechanisms, to address the issue of international abduction, enforced disappearances and related matters coherently and without delay. He stresses that, in addition to the official languages of the United Nations, outreach should be conducted in relevant languages, in particular Korean and Japanese, so that the general public in the countries concerned may be effectively reached, and results achieved. 3. Closure and accountability 50. The Special Rapporteur is seriously concerned at the continued denial by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, during its second universal periodic review, of the scale of the issue of international abduction and enforced disappearances, as well as the need to bring closure and ensure accountability, claining that no citizens of any countries other than Japan had been abducted. The delegation added that the issue had been completely resolved as a result of the efforts made by the Democratic 31 32 33 34 35 16 A/HRC/25/63, para. 67. Ibid., para. 69. Ibid., para. 72. The commission of inquiry considered it possible that other foreigners, especially foreign women, from France, Italy, the Netherlands and other unspecified European countries and the Middle East were among the abductees; see the report of the detailed findings of the commission of inquiry (see footnote 5), para. 975. Ibid., paras. 966-969, 971-972 and 995.