Anchor: The North Korean Human Rights Act, which aims to improve human rights conditions in the North, went into effect on Sunday. Analysts say that the act, which was passed in the legislature after eleven years of partisan wrangling, will shift the government's focus from the North Korean authorities to its residents.
Our Kim In-kyung has more on the contents of the act and tasks ahead.
 
Report: Kim Hye-sook was dragged to a political prison camp when she was 13 years old and endured forced labor for 28 years before she defected from North Korea.
 
[Sound bite: Kim Hye-sook - North Korean defector who was a prisoner at Bukchang prison camp (Korean)]
"The men dug tunnels and the women toiled in coal mines. I worked as a coal miner for 14 years."

Another witness testifies he saw an onsite execution of a North Korean defector near the Sino-North Korea border.

[Sound bite: Witness of an onsite execution of a North Korean defector (Korean)]
"I heard a bang. (The defector) collapsed, but crawled and still moved."
 
North Korean defector and human rights activist Lee Hyeon-seo's testimony at a TED talk in 2013 shocked the international community.
 
[Sound bite: Lee Hyeon-seo - North Korean defector and human rights activist (English)]
"When I was seven years old, I saw my first public execution. But I thought my life in North Korea was normal. And many only survive by eating grass, bugs and tree bark. Sometimes I saw dead bodies floating down the river." 
 
On Sunday, the South Korean government began to record and keep testimonies of crimes against humanity committed by the North as stipulated by the North Korean Human Rights Act.
 
The Ministry of Unification's North Korean human rights record center will document the testimonies of North Korean defectors. Every three months, the documents will move to a human rights archive established at the Ministry of Justice.
 
Unification Ministry Spokesman Jeong Joon-hee explained that the data could serve as the basis for punishment in the future, pressuring perpetrators of human rights abuses in the North.
 
[Sound bite: Unification Ministry Spokesman Jeong Joon-hee (Korean)]
"(The center) will research and collect various records. And in the future, it could investigate  responsibility (for human rights violations)."
 
The government will also appoint a human rights ambassador and pursue human rights dialogue between the two Koreas according to a comprehensive plan which will be established every three years.
 
However, supporting the improvement of human rights for North Korean defectors to countries other than South Korea and disclosing a list of North Korean perpetrators of human rights violations, have been left undecided for now. 
Kim In-kyung, KBS World Radio News.