Mick Hartley

Remember that North Korean fishing boat, and the four would-be defectors? The North, after the usual threats, had suggested a meeting at which relatives of the four would be present. The South, inevitably, declined. And now:

North Korea on Wednesday released video footage of interviews with the family members of four North Korean drifters who have defected to South Korea, pleading with them to return. The four were among 31 North Koreans whose boat drifted into South Korean waters early last month.

The video, posted on the North's official propaganda website Uriminzokkiri, shows family members of the four accusing the South Korean government for coercing or persuading the four North Koreans to defect. Kim Ok-jin, who claims to be the mother of a 22-year-old female defector, says, "The South Korean puppets are detaining my daughter who drifted in bad weather." She adds the South is "trampling on the hearts of parents who yearn for their daughter's return."

Kim Hyon-sook, who identifies herself as the wife of a 44-year-old defector, said, "My husband is not the kind of person who would betray his own parents and country." The wife of the skipper and the parents of another female defector (21) make similar comments.

[Screen grab from the video clip /Yonhap]

A South Korean intelligence official said, "Look at these people’s faces. [The regime is] pressuring the defectors to return or watch their families die." North Korea is apparently the first country ever to try and blackmail defectors by blatantly parading their families before the world press.

Of course now there can be no good choice for the defectors. Stay in South Korea and know what will happen to your relatives: return and know what will happen to you – and, very likely, your relatives anyway.

[T]here is absolutely no possibility that the North would take them back without some form of punishment, considering its history of extending punishment down to the third generation of families.