A UN working group on missing persons has requested North Korea to investigate 16 cases of enforced disappearances, two of which involve South Korean pastors, and provide information on them, the Voice of America reported Wednesday.

Citing a report by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, VOA's Korean service said the two pastors, Kim Jong-uk and Kim Guk-gi, who have been missing since 2013 and 2014, respectively, are included in the cases. The working group made the report on a conference that it held in Brussels in February.

Enforced disappearance refers to a person who has gone missing after having been arrested, detained, or abducted by a government or state-run organization.

The two missionaries, Kim Jong-uk and Kim Guk-gi, were sentenced to life confinement for espionage and subversion after being arrested in October 2013 and in October 2014, respectively.

Pyongyang has yet to accept calls to release or repatriate them and has not allowed their families or a consul to meet with them.

The working group, set up in 1980 by what is now the UN Human Rights Council, works to establish a channel of communication between families with missing members and the relevant governments, as part of its efforts to assist such families in determining the whereabouts of the missing. (Yonhap)