North Korean defectors are urging the country’s main human rights watchdog to investigate abuses in North Korea. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) said on Tuesday it has received information from 718 defectors on 23 cases of human rights abuses since it opened its North Korean Human Rights Documentation Center and Archives on March 15. Violations included torture, detention without trial and denying prisoners the right to see their families, it said. “We are trying to collect objective data by investigating similar cases of human rights violations,” an NHRCK official said. “We will ask international organizations like the United Nations’ human rights body to put pressure on relevant authorities to see that rights are protected,” the official added.