Civic groups and families of South Koreans abducted by North Korea on Monday visited U.N. headquarters in New York to deliver a letter urging the global body's interest in the matter.

The activists, who were in the U.S. to attend an event in Washington on freedom in North Korea, met with officials of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to deliver a petition and a list of South Koreans allegedly abducted by the North.

In the letter, they claimed that many abductees from the South are still alive in the communist state, citing Japan's recent confirmation that Kim Young-nam, who went missing in 1978, is the husband of Japanese abductee Megumi Yokota.

They called for U.N. action to urge Pyongyang to admit to the abductions and to repatriate the victims.