In the first move of its kind, a U.N. working group recently concluded that Pyongyang has forcibly detained the wife and two daughters left behind by a South Korean man who escaped North Korea in 1986 a year after defecting there with his family.

Their continued detention since 1987 “has been and is arbitrary,” said the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in a statement adopted at its session last month, which was made public by a Seoul-based rights group Tuesday.

It also requested that North Korea “take the necessary steps to remedy the situation, which are the immediate release of, and adequate reparation to, these persons.”

The statement is an outright dismissal of Pyongyang’s claim the case has nothing to do with arbitrary detention.

In a letter to the U.N. group last month, North Korea said Shin Suk-ja, the wife of Oh Kil-nam, died of hepatitis without giving any further details surrounding her death. It also said their two daughters did not want to see Oh, whom they did not regard as their father because he abandoned his family and drove their mother to her death.

The U.N. move is expected to give a significant backing to efforts by Oh and other South Korean citizens who have sought to confirm whether their family members kidnapped or lured into North Korea are still alive and get them to be released.

The Seoul-based rights group named the International Coalition to Stop Crimes against Humanity in North Korea submitted a petition on Oh’s behalf to the U.N. body last November, asking for help in having them set free.

In 2010, three people petitioned another U.N. working group to confirm whether their family members who were aboard a South Korean passenger plane hijacked to the North in 1969 were still alive. Three other people including two North Korean defectors made similar petitions earlier this year.

While giving a terse reply to the U.N. inquiry into the fate of Oh’s family, Pyongyang has made no mention on the cases of kidnapped passengers, passing the deadline for an official response in February.

The U.N. working group’s move is welcomed as a significant occasion to help increase the international pressure on North Korea to be more sincere toward settling the case of Oh’s family and improving its dire human rights situation.

Referring to the U.N. conclusion, many governments and parliaments around the world are expected to adopt their own statements or resolutions calling for the release of Oh’s family.

If Pyongyang continues to remain intransigent, some activists here hope it might lead to the formation of a U.N. committee to investigate crimes against humanity in North Korea. Depending on the result of the investigation, the issue of human rights violations in the North could be on the agenda of the Security Council, though China ― and probably Russia as well ― would hold the key to such a scenario coming true.

If China remains at least neutral and abstains from a vote, the North Korean regime’s crimes against humanity could be referred to the International Criminal Court.

It should be taken note of that the conclusion on the case of Oh’s family came as the U.N. is becoming more resolute in dealing with North Korean human rights issues.

The ruling is a departure from its 1995 judgment that a conclusion on the arbitrary detention of Oh’s family members could not be reached.

Quoting an unidentified diplomatic source, a local daily recently reported that some U.N. special rapporteurs, including the one on North Korean human rights, are expected to adopt a joint statement addressing the dire situations in the North during their annual meeting next month.

In step with the U.N. move, the Seoul government is also urged to be more proactive in settling the cases of forcible detention and tackling North Korean human rights issues as a whole, beyond reiterating the stance it will provide appropriate support.

Among the relatives of the 517 people confirmed by the government to have been abducted to the North since the end of the Korean War in 1953 is a 71-year-old woman who has been waiting to be reunited with her husband for 43 years.

The government can and should do more than leave her without knowing whether her husband is alive, let alone meeting him, for the rest of her life.