The National Human Rights Commission has found that local police violated a North Korean defector's constitutional rights to privacy and the pursuit of happiness when they disclosed his identity.

The commission told the National Police Agency to issue a warning to police in Gangwon Province and discipline those responsible for recent violations.

The human rights panel found the police accountable in a case filed by a North Korean defector who came to the South last May. The defector said that his wife, two sons and relatives in North Korea all went missing after his identity was revealed in Seoul.

The panel hasn't confirmed how the information was leaked to the media, but noted that Gangwon police passed a report on the defector to reporters. The panel hasn't looked into the situation regarding the defector's family in the North but said his privacy was clearly violated.

Another defector in October 2005 asked the commission to examine the alleged leak of personal information of thousands of members of a large defector group. The defector feared that the group's family members in the communist state could be in danger.

The panel is looking into the matter.