N. Korea demands return of 12 restaurant defectors
Print Edition
NORTH Korea yesterday demanded the repatriation of a dozen restaurant workers who jointly fled to South Korea, a day after blasting Seoul over a separate high-profile defection.
Yesterday’s statement was Pyongyang’s first reaction to Seoul’s announcement last week that the 12 restaurant staff and their manager had been released from government custody.
The group had been “released into society,” the South’s unification ministry said, after the intelligence service had completed investigations into their case.
North Korea claims the group was kidnapped.
A spokesman for its emergency committee set up for “rescuing” abductees described the ministry’s announcement as a “mean plot” aimed at “covering up the truth behind the group abduction.”
“Keeping them hidden from the public... citing ‘safety reasons’ shows that the puppet government’s announcement is a complete fabrication,” he said.
“We will continue fighting until we can rescue and bring back our female citizens,” the spokesman added in a statement carried by the North’s official KCNA news agency.
The waitresses had been working at a North Korea-themed restaurant in China. They made headlines when they arrived in the South Korea in April as the largest group defection for years.
While Seoul said they fled voluntarily, Pyongyang claimed they were kidnapped by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and waged a vocal campaign through its state media for their return.
The campaign has included emotional video interviews with the women’s relatives in the North, angrily denouncing the South Korean authorities and demanding a meeting with the women.
In another high-profile case, South Korea said last week that North Korea’s deputy ambassador to Britain and his family had defected to Seoul.
North Korea on Saturday lashed out at Thae’s defection, calling him “human scum,” an embezzler and a rapist.
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