N. Korean: I was tricked into defecting
Source: Agencies |
June 29, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A North Korean woman said yesterday she was tricked into defecting to South Korea six years ago by agents who offered to arrange a reunion with her father, who went to South Korea during the Korean War.
The rare public account that former defector Pak Jong Suk told to local and foreign reporters at a news conference at the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang could not be independently confirmed. The Unification Ministry in Seoul said it was investigating and would make its findings public later. It didn't elaborate.
"I am an ingrate who had betrayed my motherland to seek better living while others devoted themselves to building a thriving nation, tightening their belts," said Pak, clad in a pink traditional Korean dress.
Pak said she slipped undetected across the Tumen River from the North Korean city of Chongjin into China in March 2006, hoping to meet and get money from her South Korean father in the Chinese city of Qingdao. Three months later, after paying smugglers, she said she was tricked by South Korean intelligence agents into boarding a boat that landed in South Korea.
Pak, 66, said she lived in South Korea before returning to North Korea by plane on May 25 as she became disillusioned with life in South Korea. She said defectors are paid by South Koreans to slander North Korea.
The circumstances of how she returned to North Korea were not clear. She said she now lives in Pyongyang with her son, who is a teacher, and his wife.
It is unusual for North Korea to hold and televise a news conference for local and foreign media with ordinary North Koreans ? particularly a former defector. North Korea has previously said its citizens were held in South Korea against their will.
The rare public account that former defector Pak Jong Suk told to local and foreign reporters at a news conference at the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang could not be independently confirmed. The Unification Ministry in Seoul said it was investigating and would make its findings public later. It didn't elaborate.
"I am an ingrate who had betrayed my motherland to seek better living while others devoted themselves to building a thriving nation, tightening their belts," said Pak, clad in a pink traditional Korean dress.
Pak said she slipped undetected across the Tumen River from the North Korean city of Chongjin into China in March 2006, hoping to meet and get money from her South Korean father in the Chinese city of Qingdao. Three months later, after paying smugglers, she said she was tricked by South Korean intelligence agents into boarding a boat that landed in South Korea.
Pak, 66, said she lived in South Korea before returning to North Korea by plane on May 25 as she became disillusioned with life in South Korea. She said defectors are paid by South Koreans to slander North Korea.
The circumstances of how she returned to North Korea were not clear. She said she now lives in Pyongyang with her son, who is a teacher, and his wife.
It is unusual for North Korea to hold and televise a news conference for local and foreign media with ordinary North Koreans ? particularly a former defector. North Korea has previously said its citizens were held in South Korea against their will.
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