South Korea 'kidnapped' defectors: N. Korea

13 North Korea defectors who came to South Korea on April 4 /Courtesy of Ministry of Unification

By Lee Han-soo

North Korea has accused South Korea of kidnapping the 13 defectors who fled to the South on April 7 and demanded their immediate return.

This is the first response since the South’s Unification Ministry announced that the North Koreans, who were working in a restaurant in China, had defected.

“Unless they apologize for the hideous abduction and send those abductees back, they will face unimaginably serious consequences and severe punishment,” a spokesman for the North’s Red Cross Society was quoted as saying by Uriminzokkiri, the North's main propaganda website.

The defectors left China on April 6 and are known to have come into South Korea through Thailand.

The military state also showed that it is annoyed with China for letting its citizens leave the country so easily.

“We have a firm grasp on which government overlooked their duties and let the South Koreans abduct our people,” the website said.

But Lu Kang, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said China was not responsible for the major defection.

“All defectors had valid travel documents issued from North Korea when they left China on April 6,” she said.

South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said there were no abductions and the North Koreans had freely defected.