By Kang Seung-woo
North Korea renewed calls Thursday for the immediate return of 13 of its citizens that defected to Seoul in April and released a video that Pyeongyang said shows the parents of one of the group crying over their daughter’s absence.
The group of 13 North Koreans defected from a Pyongyang-operated restaurant in China ― one male manager and 12 female employees ― and arrived in Seoul on April 7. The North has consistently claimed that South Korea abducted the workers and demanded that they be immediately returned to their loved ones.
The North’s state-run website Uriminzokkiri posted the six-minute, 40-second video of the parents who said they are heartbroken over the South’s kidnapping of her daughter.
“My daughter is not the sort who would dare to betray the country,” her mother said.
In addition, they also bluntly criticized President Park Geun-hye, adding that North Korean artillery will destroy Cheong Wa Dae.
Given that the North numbered the video as the first such interview, it is expected to continue releasing such videos as part of efforts urging the South Korean government to return them.
Last week, the totalitarian country unilaterally notified South Korea of its plans to send the defectors’ family members south, asking for face-to-face contact with their daughters.
However, the unification ministry rejected this demand, saying the latest group defection by the restaurant workers was completely of their own free will.
The North also allowed seven coworkers of the defectors to be interviewed by CNN on April 18, during which they also claimed that South Korea abducted their colleagues.